Reviving Azure Daybreak
by seldomknown3
Summary: Sequel to The Blue Hour Awakens What happens when Nessa gets shocking news about Quince, and Charity about their home? Final sequel to A Step Into the Twilight! SxK, RxOC, RokuNami, OCxOCxOC
1. Pretend that I Am Weightless

CHAPTER I

Pretend That I Am Weightless

(NOTE)

This is the second sequel to my Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, A Step Into the Twilight. If you haven't read that, I suggest you go do so and then read it's first sequel, The Blue Hour Awakens. I can absolutely guarantee you that you will not understand this fanfiction until you do so. On that note, thank you to everyone who has been reading, and I'll announce the winner(s) of the virtual cookie at the end of this fic!

(/NOTE)

_With open arms, and open eyes._

Hundreds of red hats flew above the crowd of eager and hopeful teenagers, red gowns draping over their, now free, bodies. Skillfully catching the last one down in a hand full of rings and a wrist of bracelets, a brunette girl with even darker brown eyes smiled at the sight.

"Here it is. Graduation." she whispered to herself, only to be bombarded by her best friend, Nessa. She had changed much since before their last journey to unlock Kingdom Hearts; she now donned glasses and a slightly cuter face, all for reasons that only herself, Nessa, and a girl named Sada would ever know.

The brunette smiled as Nessa jumped on her back, and caught her by the legs, "Finally free!" she laughed at the girl who started playing with her hair. "If only my parents were here to see this."

Nessa giggled, "I think your parents would be happy enough to know that you actually cared about continuing with your education."

Both of them were tackled over by three others at that very instant; One was another brunette girl with longer hair tied back, another was a boy built like a football player, and the last was none other than Nessa's boyfriend, a blond boy somewhere in the middle.

They knew these three as Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

Charity's claustrophobia began to kick in as she somehow rolled out of the heap of bodies, only to be greeted by Olette's boyfriend, Odol, who for some reason refused to take part in the football tackle that had been going on.

"We're finally free, we're finally free!" the three on top of Nessa began to chant as they all stood up.

"And summer's here and college is around the corner." Pence said. Everyone stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Don't even talk about college." Hayner told him quite seriously, but was silenced by a kiss from Nessa on the lips, "We should go to the beach sometime this summer."

"Come on, Ness," Hayner complained, "The beach is for little kids."

Nessa half-pouted, "It wasn't for little kids two years ago."

"Yeah, well," he suddenly became an inch taller as he fixed his posture and jutted out his chest, "We're legal now. We have more important things to do, like balancing checkbooks and investing in stocks and stuff."

"And stuff." Charity laughed.

"Coming from the guy who told me not to talk about college!" Pence hit him on the back of his head lightly.

"Naturally." Olette giggled.

Taking their skateboards, they all rushed out of the graduation ceremony before the principal and deans could start going on a long rant about the good and bad of highschool and how college is going to be a lot harder and something of the sort.

"I can't believe we graduated already." Olette whispered as they escaped the crowd.

"I can't believe I graduated." Odol shrugged.

"I can't believe I survived to graduate." Charity confessed. Two trips to the Universe of Kingdom Hearts already and she had survived both of them. She didn't even want to go over the amount of casualties in her head as to who didn't, but she knew that if she mentioned one of them Nessa would immediately grow silent.

"So how's Riiiikuuuuu?" cooed Pence to Charity. Charity hit him on the shoulder.

"You know I haven't talked to him in forever." she murmured. Riku seldom picked up the phone, or used it, for that matter. Probably busy all the time trying to restore The Radiant Garden and Hollow Bastion. Sora, Kairi, and Riku had the option of going back to Destiny Islands, but only a year after they had returned they decided to go help the committee.

"That's not being a very good boyfriend." Olette shook her head.

Charity suddenly had a look like a sympathetic frown on her face, "He's okay, I can't help what he's got to do. Besides, I might not ever see him again." Charity told them.

Nessa shook her head, "He said he'd visit you soon. Maybe the Heartless are just insane over where they are right now."

Charity remembered; they had tried to shut Kingdom Hearts many years ago, and nothing. Heartless still appeared, and as long as there was a world where somebody had darkness in their heart, they always would. Thankfully, none of them seemed to appear in Twilight Town, but both Nessa and Charity both had assumed that they were just waiting for their time to strike; they could name at least three people with plenty of darkness. Vivi, although, was most likely not one of them.

The Usual Spot. Although growing too small for them, it never grew too small for it to be in their hearts. Sitting like a king and a queen to the side of the Spot was Olette, and Odol who had taken where Roxas sat in the alternate Twilight Town. Hayner and Pence sat next to each other on another side, with Nessa close by and Charity next to her.

Pence, of course, handed them all ice cream and they sat there for hours.

"I suppose that means that there probably isn't anything wrong with the balance anymore." Charity smiled. She had remembered the last time she was practically itching for another adventure, but now that she had just graduated high school she was happier to just be at home with her friends and living a normal life.

"Hasn't been for two years." Odol mentioned. He hadn't gone on the last trip because he had finally settled back into his home and he had Olette. It was too awkward to leave already for both his family and Olette to miss him.

Nessa smiled. She, on the other hand, was not supposed to go to the Keyblade Wars but had anyway. She had gone through so much that journey, both escaping the darkness, finding her Almost Somebody, merging with her, and using the legendary keyblade of The Blue Hour, otherwise known as Charity's Savior of Balance's mirror keyblade, to unlock Kingdom Hearts.

And she could never forget what happened to Quince.

Or the year before that with Leander.

Looking over at Hayner, she frowned. Was she really destined to lose the ones that she loved? She didn't want to put anybody in that kind of trouble. Especially not Charity, whom she had known for her whole life. Technically, both of her lives.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette on the other hand had also been involved on their first journey to destroy Kiur and seal Twilight Town.

Charity wondered silently why they hadn't gotten any calls. Surely they needed to lock up some worlds again due to the Keyblade War; many of them were probably close to being sucked into the darkness. This, however, couldn't be much of a risk since they unlocked Kingdom Hearts and left it open just enough for both light and darkness to seep through, for eternal balance.

Maybe that was why Twilight Town wasn't affected so badly?

It probably meant the same for the rest of the worlds.

"What's wrong?" Pence's voice pierced Charity's innermost thoughts. Shaking her head, she waved him off and laughed.

"Just thinking about what it'll be like to be on our own." she lied.

"Yeah." Hayner sighed.

"We'll always have each other, right?" asked Olette. She put her hand out palm-down in front of everybody else.

"Of course." Odol said, following suit and being the first to put his hand on hers.

Everyone else nodded, and put their hands in the center.

"Forever." Charity told her.

At that moment, Nessa's cell phone rang.

"Ugh." she murmured, and dug through her pocket to find her cell phone. When she finally managed to get it out, it had already timed out and was now flashing '1 missed call' in the front screen. "It's probably someone from school wondering where we are." she mumbled and flipped open the phone.

Riku.

"What?" she asked, utterly confused.

"Who was it?" asked Hayner.

"Riku called." At this, Charity immediately perked up, but then drooped back down. It was probably just another rain check on how Quince was doing. The last time they talked, he was still breathing and his heart rate was still normal, but he had not waken from his trance. Aerith was doing a good job at taking care of him, as she was the only one that offered. Nessa knew that she couldn't stay to help him, but sincerely missed him.

As if Hayner had gotten the message, he put his arm around Nessa and smiled, "Try calling him back?" he asked her.

Nessa nodded, and dialed the number. Ring, ring, ring. Nothing.

"Dammit." Charity mumbled, finishing her ice cream.

"If it's important, he'll call back." Olette said.

Speak of the devil, a ring.

"Sure," Charity said in a mock sing-song, "He can call but we can't call him."

"Hello?" asked Nessa, expecting just what Charity had, an update on Quince. And that's exactly what she got.

"Charity," Riku said. His voice somehow seemed lower, which was expected what with him nearing his twenties. "Quince woke up."

Nessa dropped the phone, and it hit the floor. "Hello?" came Riku's voice from the ground underneath them.

"What happened?" asked Hayner, running to her side.

Nessa opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of it and turned to Charity, "We have to go back to Hollow Bastion."

Pence spit out the part of his third ice cream that he was eating and stared at them in the same amazement as Odol, Olette, and Hayner were.

"No. No, no, no." Hayner said sternly, and took Nessa by the shoulders, sitting her back down in the chair. "You're staying. No more keyblade crap. I'd miss you too much."

Nessa managed to laugh at Hayner's unsmiling face, "Just for a couple days. We'll be back, right, Charity?"

Charity cocked her head to the side. She didn't even know why they were going. "Uh. Yeah." she responded.

"Great, we'll go to the beach then." Olette decided.

Nessa picked up her phone from the ground. Riku was, surprisingly, still on the line. "Come pick us up at Twilight Town." she told him.

xxxxx

"Riku!" Charity called. Without even looking at his face, she threw herself into Riku's arms. She knew his presence well enough already to not even have to look at him. "I've missed you so much." she admitted to him.

"I missed you, too." he smiled, and laughed lowly and hotly into her ear, kissing her on the cheek. He pushed her away to look at her face, "You've changed so much. You look gorgeous."

Charity was smiling. Even back when she was with him all the time, he wasn't too free with compliments. Charity had certainly grown since she was sixteen; her eighteenth birthday, though, wouldn't be for weeks.

"You haven't changed a bit." she smiled, looking up at him. Maybe he had gotten a little taller; which only made it harder for Charity. He kept his hair the same length it used to be, and his face was still angular yet soft, angry yet calm at the same time.

"Did Nessa tell you?" asked Riku.

"As to why we're going back to Hollow Bastion? No." Charity replied honestly.

"Quince woke up." Charity's eyes widened almost the same as Nessa's had. Nessa nodded her head, and headed towards the door of the Gummi Ship.

"We'll be back soon!" Nessa called out to the rest of them. Riku and Charity climbed into the Gummi Ship and it set off.

Without even having to guess who was driving the ship, Charity smirked while she crossed her legs. "I hope you've been getting some lessons since the last time you drove this thing with us, Sora." she cooed.

Sora poked his head out from the opening of the cockpit. He hadn't changed at all, except maybe his eyes seemed a little bit lighter. That always seemed to be true, though, when Roxas was in his body; at least the last time they saw him.

Sora smiled and gave her the thumbs-up, causing all of them to laugh.

"That's a 'no'." Nessa laughed, who was trying to calm down at the moment. Why was she so excited to see Quince? She had Hayner now. But she had to admit that she definitely felt something strong for Quince, but she did nothing because she was still stuck in the past of Leander. **Author's Note: Poor, shishka-bobbed Leander.**

Landing swiftly, they all jumped out of the Gummi Ship. Charity and Nessa only stared in amazement at Hollow Bastion; every building, street, and shop seemed to be re-done only to the best. Following Riku although they knew all too well where Merlin's house was, they were not surprised to see that this was the only structure that hadn't changed one bit.

"Sora, Sora!" a girl's voice came from the house. A girl familiar to the group as Kairi stepped out, and gasped. She had apparently been very busy since Sora and Riku had gone to pick both Nessa and Charity up.

"What's wrong?" Sora found himself obligated to ask.

"We tried to stop him, he's not supposed to walk until we could get him into a rehab because he's been out so long, but he's walking. He's not shaky or anything, it's like he wasn't affected at all by the coma." Turning away from that bit of happy information, she smiled at Nessa and Charity, "It's been so long!" she exclaimed.

"He's walking?!" asked Sora as Kairi exchanged greetings with Nessa and Charity.

Kairi nodded, and they followed her inside.

"...Quince."

The boy's brown hair had grown a bit longer, and he was obviously wearing a different set of clothes. He had gotten taller, more muscular, but his face was still calm and baby-like. Pretty brown eyes glimmered from under a few strands of his hair, and his eyes immediately drifted towards Nessa's. He was smiling.

Why did she miss that smile so much?

**Author's Note: Short, I know, but it's only the first chapter. Nonetheless, it's time to announce who won the virtual cookie! XD Uhm. Technically. Both Azul Twilight and Igor Lollipop did, because the present was whatever you wanted it to be so you could decide the ending for yourself. :D Surprise:dodges meat cleavers:**


	2. Am I Heartless, Am I Soulless

CHAPTER II

Am I Heartless, Am I Soulless

(NOTE)

Okay, since the last chapter was the introduction, here comes the actual, ahem, storyline. :3 Again, for stupid people coming in on chapter two without reading chapter one, nonetheless the first two stories in this trilogy, stop being stupid and go read them. :3 Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own any Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy characters or settings or anything. I do own Charity, Nessa, etc. But I don't own Quince, goddammit.

(/NOTE)

"I missed you." Nessa found herself whispering towards Quince, much to her surprise or lack thereof. The backpack in which she packed the necessities for their 'couple day stay' clung relentlessly to her aching shoulders, much like the sad smile that clung to her face.

Before she knew it, he had been embracing her. "I'm so glad you survived all that." he murmured.

Nessa's eyes teared up lightly, but she didn't look up at him, she simply wrapped her arms around him. Did he even know how long he had been in a coma for? Did he think that they just finished battling Marluxia, Estelle, and Parker?

Charity frowned, "Nessa," she interjected as her best friend's eyes shot towards her, just as Quince's did. Quince didn't understand, but Nessa got the silent message and let go.

After all, she had Hayner.

Dark brown orbs moved from Nessa to Charity, still confused. He sat down though. "It's nice that we can all finally be together without having to go kill somebody." he mentioned. Although everyone laughed, Nessa was sure now; he had no idea he'd been asleep for so long.

"Hey, Quince, you sure you should be—..." a voice broke the awkward silence as a new presence made himself known in the room. He had medium-length, shaggy brown hair and black eyes. The look on his face was that of someone smug enough to know anything in the world, and a face was one that they had quite the past with. "Well, well. Charity and Nessa."

"In the flesh." Charity smiled. She was sure she could trust Broden now that he had been with the restoration committee for at least two years. Apparently he had done them no wrong, because they would have kicked him out long ago if he had.

"Well, well, well." a voice from inside of Charity came. Here it came; Exie stepped out of her, quickly becoming whole in front of them. She, too, had shown signs of growth, especially since her time in the Organization. Taller with more of a figure, Exie represented an eighteen year-old about as much as Charity did. Although Broden was at least a year older than her, he came close to looking at him eye-to-eye.

"Hellloooo," Broden practically howled. Kairi immediately shouted.

"Every time a girl walks in this house!" Pushing him back into the hallway, she shook her head. "Boys, too... That boy would screw anything that..." Exie followed him into the hallway, smirking as she walked.

"Um, Kairi?" asked Nessa, trying to break her rant, in a low whisper as Quince started a conversation with Charity, "Does Quince even know that it's been two years?"

Kairi's eyes widened, and then she sadly shook her head, "I think that he thinks it's only been a couple days since we unlocked Kingdom Hearts."

"I have to tell him." Nessa decided quickly, ignoring any words of discouragement from doing said task from Kairi.

"Quince," she started, "do you know how long it's been since you've been asleep?"

xxxxx

The girl floated with no direction in the darkness. Blind night covered the violet of her eyes and motionless bliss followed her through her deep slumber. No way out, no way in; how exactly was she born here? Was she born in the darkness.

A heavy weight in her left hand, almost as heavy as the burdens she had carried in her previous life.

Previous life.

Did she even have one?

Gravity built up slowly. Her feet slowly hit some kind of a ground. Solid. Thud. When was the last time she felt anything solid beneath her feet? When was the last time she felt at all?

Was it even possible for a Heartless to feel? Was it possible for a Heartless to think? To look? To even _be_?

She had no previous life, really. She lived within another. For the first time in her life, she felt a sensation; she felt cold on her fingertips.

What happened when you've been living in the darkness of a heart for so long? What happened when you released yourself from that darkness?

What happened when you released yourself from that darkness without the heart that you've been in being _taken_?

She had a name. The girl who owned the heart she was residing in; the name rang like a bell and rolled across her tongue like a marble when she spoke it aloud.

"Charity."

xxxxx

"...Two years." Quince murmured to himself. He stared down at his two, rough hands. Somehow, they had felt weaker when he woke up. His face felt different, his hair was longer, and his eyes felt like they hadn't been open in ages. It all made sense now. But two years? He put his hand to his head; it ached as if there was a scar.

"Yes." Nessa told him quietly.

Interrupting the silence, a shout was heard from inside the room. The group immediately felt mixed emotions of refusal and readiness as their weapons appeared in their hands. Not to anyone's surprise, Broden ran in the room. He was wielding a gunblade.

There was no struggle. No enemy, no Heartless, no Nobody. Charity just laid on the floor in a fetal position, screaming. Her hands covered her ears as if she was hearing a horrible sound, and her screams sounded almost like nails on a chalkboard.

"Charity!" Riku screamed, worried. He ran to her and practically covered her in a hug, as if he was shielding her from something. The screaming didn't cease or die, but he could feel her head pounding underneath him and her heart beating threefold. When he listened close enough, he could hear a voice. Saying what, he couldn't distinguish.

"There's someone inside of her!" Riku shouted.

Exie backed up a little bit; she had just walked in the room. "Don't look at me."

Charity's screaming finally ceased as a strange presence walked out of Charity as if a ghost walking through a body. Becoming solid quickly, they got a better look at the figure.

Medium length, black hair draped from her scalp. Her eyes were a pale violet; one of the rarest colors. Although her skin was paler and her lips redder, she almost looked like Charity or Exie; _almost_. She had a demeanor about her that separated the two from her very well.

"Who are you?" asked Sora, angrily. His clothing had changed much from the last time they met; now an electric yellow and pale pink, he looked like Easter came early. It was certainly a step up from the last two times that he had traveled with them, both of which he was wearing a sea green and plum purple outfit to.

The figure didn't speak. She simply blinked at all of them, looking around in confusion. She now knew why she was out of Charity; she had been pulled out. She was called out. A deep voice; a powerful one. One that seemed to lust for control. One that had control at a point, but possibly lost it? Why was it that she could think so clearly, but no words came to her and no ability to speak.

"Are you Charity's Heartless?" asked Riku, who helped Charity up. She was quivering and looked much paler now, almost sickly.

One word came to her in the same deep voice that had pulled her out of the brunette girl. One command. In a voice that had never been heard before, a voice that was eerily similar to Charity's, but somehow more full of breath and life, she spoke.

"Roxas."

Backing up a pace, Sora could feel Roxas now within him. The honey blond boy stepped out of Sora. His clothing hadn't changed a bit, although maybe more to fit the taller, fully-formed version of himself. Fists clenching and teeth grinding, he walked past Sora and up to the girl.

She didn't move at all. The girl stood there in confusion, or lack thereof, as she looked up at the blond boy. Speaking the word again, she repeated, "Roxas."

"What _is_ it?!" Roxas asked, now confused, "Who told you my name? Who are you?"

Her command; she could speak this. "Get Roxas."

Roxas's heart skipped a beat. Get Roxas? "What do you mean 'Get Roxas'?"

"Get Roxas." she responded, her violet eyes narrowing towards the floor.

"Obviously," a familiar voice came. Apparently, he had been standing there for enough time to understand what was going on, "She's going to 'get Roxas'." the fiery redhead told them, and laughed quite a bit himself. His eyes flashed over to the girl, and pushed his way through the wall of keyblade wielders to the girl and Roxas.

Another command. "Get Axel." she murmured.

"What?!" he asked, now angered.

"Ya'see?" asked Roxas, "I don't get it."

As if something went off in the girl, her eyes immediately faded to black, as did the area around her. In less than five seconds, Axel, Roxas and the girl had disappeared into the darkness that she brought with her.

"Roxas!" Sora shouted. Naminé's voice came from Kairi's body as she shouted in unison with him. A girl with long, pale blonde hair and cobalt eyes sprung from the girl, her body now becoming solid and full. She stood in the area where Axel and Roxas had disappeared.

"I knew it was possible." a voice from Nessa's direction came, although not quite Nessa's voice. Although Nessa was given control of her Somebody's body because she had lived the real life, Sada never hesitated to speak up. "The ability to give away hearts."

"What'd'ya mean, Sada?" asked Quince.

Sada laughed. "Remember? You probably don't. When I first talked to Nessa, I was thinking about it. And now I'm positive; the Heartless that I first saw inside of Charity can give away hearts to Heartless, and bodies to Nobodies."

"How can you tell just that?" asked Riku, who was still kneeling next to the flushed body of Charity, who was now on the ground, looking very sick.

"Almost Somebodies can." Sada said simply, "And that's the whole reason that her Heartless can. Because she's got the Savior of Balance."

Everyone looked at Sada confused.

She sighed, "Think about it. What's the perfect in between for a Nobody and a Heartless?"

"I guess you're right." Nessa's voice came from the same body.

"Of course I am."

"Th-that doesn't explain at all," Charity rebelled as she tried to stand up but was quickly sat back down by Riku, "why she could just come out of my body and why she had to get Axel and Roxas."

"I guess," Broden said, "that's kinda weird. And why those two, anyway?"

xxxxx

"You're sick." Roxas spat in the direction of a man with beautiful, long, white hair. He carried two light brown eyes with a very yellow tint to it, and his hair was tan and exotic looking.

Xemnas laughed. "You think I'm the one that called you here?"

"No shit, unless you suddenly took on the form of a teenage girl." Axel interjected.

Xemnas laughed harder this time, "Oh, no. It's not even her that you have to thank for your being brought here. Nor is it me."

"How are you back?" asked Roxas, "Sora destroyed you and the rest of the Organization, so did Riku. How?"

"You have number XI and his calling out to thank for that, as you have him to thank for bringing you two here." Xemnas replied.

The white room in which they were sitting in, especially with every other Organization member absent from the room, was silent enough to hear a pin drop.

"Marluxia." Axel growled.

"Marluxia faded into the darkness before he could do any of that! He faded two years ago! I saw it happening!" Roxas shouted.

Looking down at them and their lower chairs, he shook his head, "He tricked you. Marluxia never really faded into the darkness."

"Liar!" Axel shouted.

Ignoring the outburst, Xemnas went on, "He spent the last two years acquiring a skill from the hearts that he had already collected; the skill to resurrect."

"But that girl!" Roxas exclaimed, "What does she have to do with any of this?"

"This girl," he remarked, "is the Heartless of the wielder of Savior of Balance, and the only known being with the ability to give hearts."

"Hearts..."

"But the fool Marluxia," he growled, "did not tell her to bring Naminé; the only one that can create the memories necessary for this Heartless to believe that she has lived her life with the Organization, with the ability to speak and actually complete this ability."

"Don't touch Naminé!" Roxas shouted out.

"Any more outbursts and I swear I will turn you into a Dusk." Xemnas said, a little too calmly for Axel's or Roxas's comfort.

"We can use portals to get around wherever we want. We're still Nobodies. What makes you think we'll actually stay here and help the Organization?"

Xemnas sighed, "I was afraid of this." He was probably lying. Only lifting his hand, a chamber underneath the high chairs opened up. Inside of it was a sleeping face; a familiar one. She had long, purple hair and was wearing a white dress. Her eyes were closed and her skin was of ivory.

Axel gasped, much to his own shock.

"I know you care for her, Axel." Xemnas smirked, "You know very well that Nobodies can read feelings. I'm just surprised you feel at all."

"They lied when they said that Nobodies can't feel." Axel got off the subject, "Roxas proved that long ago. What they didn't lie about was the typical Nobody's refusal to do so."

Roxas shook his head. Since when was Axel this intellectual?

"Maybe so." Xemnas replied; he was both upset at Ansem's misjudgement and his own alike. "But they didn't lie when they said that Nobodies had no hearts, either."

"Not real ones anyway." Axel mumbled.

"Unless you're Nessa." Roxas added.

"Okay, okay, so there have been exceptions." Xemnas sighed exasperated, and muttered something that these two had just become more impossible through the years.

Still Axel looked down at Estelle. He did care for her; but why? The feeling definitely wasn't false. How could he get out of this one? And Roxas wouldn't leave Axel, but would he.

As if reading his mind, Xemnas smirked and looked over at Roxas, "And as far as Roxas, remember that we could just as easily destroy Naminé as we could Estelle, whether or not she's here." He looked up, "In fact, I believe Zexion was sent to retrieve her soon enough."

As if admitting defeat, Roxas crushed his own hand onto his lap, probably forming a bruise. He put his other hand on his head as if to separate the clean spikes on the top.

"Something we haven't been able to explain yet, though," Xemnas went off, "is how exactly the boy with the strawberry-blond hair managed to escape his death by throwing himself into the darkness before his body died. In a sense, he's a Nobody now."

"Strawberry-blond hair?" asked Axel, raising an eyebrow.

"Now, he goes by the name of Anton."

xxxxx

"Just as I thought," a scarlet drawl voice popped out of Cid's mouth as he shifted the toothpick inside of it to the left. He stared at a screen which showed some sort of ultraviolet diagram of the Universe of kingdom Hearts, "There's a lot of activity down at The World that Never Was, but right now it's being guarded by darkness."

"Damn," Riku murmured, "and of course, the only people that would be able to bring themselves over there would be Naminé, Roxas, Axel, Broden, and Nessa. But Roxas and Axel are already there, Broden's no longer a Dark wielder, Nessa's back with her Somebody, and Naminé can't fight on her own."

"Plus," Charity grabbed Riku's arms, "I don't trust you anywhere near the darkness anymore." Since her Heartless had left her heart, her sickness seemed to evaporate and she was back to normal, although a little shaky. Riku laughed.

"I guess."

"Oh no." Charity just realized. "We've been... sucked into another journey, then?" she asked.

Nessa smirked, "Getting back Roxas and Axel?"

"Findin' out whah tha Organization seems to be... all back?" asked Cid.

"What?!" Sora, Kairi, Riku, Charity, Nessa, and Broden all exclaimed at once. Naminé, who was still outside of Kairi's body, seemed to be in too much shock to understand what was going on around them at all.

"They're all there." Cid confirmed for them. "All thirteen 'a them."

"How is that possible?!" Kairi complained.

"We have to go find out. Cid," Sora said, "Can the computer tell us how we can get rid of the darkness around The World that Never Was?"

"No, it can't," he said, "But frum mah better intuition, I'd say it'd be best to seal up all those worlds that the Light and Dark wielders unsealed two years ago. It might just reduce tha' darkness count a bit."

"We could do that." Riku nodded.

"Okay," Nessa said, "so once we seal up all of the worlds they unsealed, we can go to The World that Never Was and get Roxas and Axel back?"

"And maybe find out a little bit more about this Heartless." Charity wondered, "and what the Organization's up to in the first place."

"I just don't understand any of it." Naminé's voice finally broke the silence as she sat on the couch. Her hands were folded together as if in prayer and her eyes were looking down. Although her voice was shaking, she seemed to know exactly the point she was trying to get at. "We destroyed Marluxia, and the rest of them had been gone a long time ago. All of them except Roxas, and Axel who got back."

"They probably all got back the same way as Axel," Sora said, "Someone called out to them."

"But who?" Nobody could argue with Naminé for that one. It was a mystery; who exactly would have called them out of the darkness.

Something hit Riku like a rock to the head, "Maybe... when I took back my body from Marluxia... it didn't get rid of him."

"Don't say that," Broden interjected, "that dude's scary."

"But it might be true." Charity whispered. "He called them all out of the darkness?"

Sora shook his head, "Until we think of anything better, that's the explanation we've got. Now we have to focus on getting Axel and Roxas back.

xxxxx

"How did you even know that this Heartless could do that if there hasn't been one like her before?" asked Roxas, now calmer. They were now out of the large, white meeting room and inside of Xemnas's office. Besides themselves, there was also Zexion and Saïx, two other Organization members. Saïx seemed to be giving orders to Zexion, but Zexion just stood there and nodded quietly. This gave both Roxas and Axel a strange air of nostalgia.

Marluxia walked in quietly. His pale red hair was a little longer than before, but his face hadn't changed a bit. He stared down at Roxas and eye-to-eye at Axel; even though Axel was technically his 'elder', he never felt intimidated by the redheaded man one bit. "When I was using Riku's body, I remembered that his heart lay within his friends, hence his friends were in his heart. I read Charity's, analyzed it. This Heartless," he pointed to a girl sitting on the floor, staring at the wall, "is the one that can give out hearts and bodies."

"What we've been searching for." Xemnas remarked.

"Because all other plans have failed, from both this Organization and that newer one." Saïx interjected. Riku remembered the new Organization all too well and how annoying they seemed to be. In fact, one of the Organization members was Charity's Nobody, Exie. The first one they had ever met on their way to Merlin's house to inform Cid about their busted Gummi ship.

"How they could go that long without realizing that one of their members was the Nobody of the Somebody with this Heartless is beyond me." Saïx finished, "but they certainly didn't earn the title of an Organization."

Roxas smirked. He knew that both himself and Xemnas were just jealous.

"Go occupy your rooms," Xemnas ordered the two. Like old times, Roxas and Axel followed orders, although this time, begrudgingly. "Once we retrieve Naminé, she will begin the process of adding memories into the Heartless. In due time, she will be able to hand out hearts, but in order for her to do this, we need to retrieve one item. That will be revealed to you tomorrow. For now, be on your way."

Axel and Roxas nodded, and walked out of the room together. As they left, Zexion disappeared in a haze of black, and Saïx stayed in the room. He sat on the desk and looked at Xemnas, who sighed heavily.

"What is it?" he asked.

"What exactly is the item that we need to retrieve for the Heartless to be able to give us all hearts?" asked Saïx as he stared at Xemnas intently.

"Nothing other than her Somebody's weapon." Xemnas replied to him, "The Savior of Balance."

**Author's Note: So the new journey is revealed! I hope you liked it, and I'm so happy to have an excuse to bring the Organization back. X3 Is that a bad thing? See you next chapter!**


	3. Touchdown, Turnaround

CHAPTER III

Touchdown, Turnaround.

(NOTE)

Okay, I understand that a whole hell of a lot happened in that chapter. xD; I have an excuse, really I do. I'm a rushing sonuvabadperson. :D Disclaimer: I don't own Kya: Dark Lineage, Fall Out Boy, my Cheez-Its or my band uniform. But most importantly, I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, nor do I own Quince. D:

(/NOTE)

"You're crazy." Roxas interjected. All thirteen members looked over at him. "Savior of Balance? She needs _that_ to give out hearts?"

"It's simple," Vexen told him, "without a source to let the power flow from, it could just dissolve in the air. Being the wielder's Heartless, Savior or Destroyer of Balance is the only one that she can wield."

Xemnas's eyes widened, and he looked over at every member. It seemed that they were thinking the same thing as he was, and Vexen was angry that he hadn't realized this before.

"Obviously our problem was getting the girl in through the darkness, but her Nobody... a member of the old Organization... of course!" he muttered to himself a little bit, and grinned as he looked over at everybody. "Her Nobody which has the power to wield the Destroyer of Balance, a source of power for the heart creation to take place through."

Axel and Roxas looked across the room at each other; they were both thinking the same thing. If they thought Charity would be a pain to get there, they had never met Exie. She was a pain both in brutality and in attitude.

"Do you have something to share, number XIII?" Marluxia asked him, eyes narrowing. He remembered only too well how Roxas had gone against him in attempt to destroy him. Such a thing most definitely couldn't be forgotten.

"I have something I wanna share," Roxas admitted, "but this isn't exactly rated M."

"Silence, both of you." Xemnas ordered.

Marluxia only stared up at him with his narrowed eyes. After all, _he_ should have been the leader. _He_ should have been the one with special privileges, and _he_ should be the one in the highest chair at the moment. This man was the one that brought them all back in the first place. "Without me, you'd be nowhere." he hissed up at him.

"Care to repeat that?" Xemnas asked. The rest of the Organization looked over at him.

"It shall be repeated enough when your actions backfire as they always do."

"Leave." Xemnas ordered Marluxia.

Marluxia cocked his head to the side in angered confusion, "What was that?" he asked.

"You heard me very well." Xemnas began to clarify, "If you refuse to remain loyal to the Organization, please leave before I degrade you to a dusk."

"Remain loyal?!" Marluxia laughed in an amused tone, "Who exactly was it that brought you all back?!" Receiving no response, he looked over at all of them smugly. "I'm leaving for my room. I think I've made my point." He disappeared in almost a lava flow of darkness, and Xemnas sighed, exasperated as he put his hand to his head.

"You're smart," Xemnas looked over at Vexen, "When does this start getting easier?"

Vexen shook his head and took that question rhetorically.

xxxxx

Charity couldn't sleep that night, even though she was back in her four-year room. '_That's what I would be if my heart was taken_?' she thought to herself much too much that night. She periodically heard odd noises in the room that used to be Leander's but was now occupied by Broden, but refused to ask exactly what was wrong.

When she woke up after being able to muster two hours of sleep at the most, she rubbed her eyes and flipped out of her bed. Changing quickly, she walked out of the room and into the main room that they always seemed to meet at.

"I'm not too sure about going back to that island again. You know, Stitch's island." Sora murmured. He had some good times with Stitch, but the little girl just freaked him out and the last time they were there, Charity was almost destroyed. "We might want to start with Wonderland." he suggested.

"...Wonderland." Riku semi-silently complained.

"Ugh." Charity murmured and rested her head on Riku's shoulder.

"May as well get it over with, right?" asked Kairi, optimistically as always. It was nice that she had finally shaken off the funk that she was in since Sora and Riku were gone from her lives for a year straight. Imagine how Charity felt.

"To Wonderland it is." Broden said. They all left the room and boarded the Gummi ship. Sora was driving again, so Charity took a wild guess and said that Chip and Dale finally quit. Or died; chipmunks weren't supposed to live that long, anyway. Then again, neither were mice or ducks. Charity refused to question any crazy concoction of Disney's mind.

It wasn't long before they reached the rotating world with a familiar rabbit hole. The second they thought they had landed in the world, their Gummi ship abandoned them at the top and they floated down the hole.

"Feels like ecstasy." Nessa nodded.

"And you... know how that feels?" asked Charity, a bit worried.

Quince laughed, "I wanna be the ecstasy, then."

Nessa blushed; she really shouldn't be feeling this way. After he had just figured out that he had been in a coma for two years, how would he react to the fact that she completely abandoned her love for him and chose Hayner? Was that being selfish, or was she doing the right thing to move on with her life? After all, who knows how long that coma could have kept itself up. A few more years? A couple more decades? His whole life?

Finally, their feet touched a reassuring ground. Oddly enough, Exie stepped right back out of Charity. "I smell trouble." she complained.

"Like we have time for trouble." Naminé shook her head. "If I remember right, the keyhole's just in that door. I visited only a few days ago."

"So the keyholes are back in their original locations?" Sora asked.

"That was it's original location?" asked Naminé, "Then I suppose so."

"That makes things a lot easier." he sighed, reassured. The second they stepped in the room, Nessa started ranting about how everything was way too small.

Sora gave them all a huge grin, the kind of grin that kept the Gummi Ship running. He grabbed a bottle on the table and began to drink it.

"Little Timmy wanted a drink, but he could drink no more," Charity said in sing-song, "because what he though was H2O was H2SO4."

"H2SO4?" asked Kairi.

"Sulfuric acid." Charity told her, nodding.

"...Thanks for that." Nessa shuddered. As they finally became aware of their surroundings, they realized that they were suddenly looking up at a table of a giant.

"What... happened?!" asked Riku, now a bit worried.

"I'm magical." Sora smiled. It was a bit hard to take him seriously with a pink and yellow outfit, nonetheless a flower drawn on his cheek that he still refused to stop making on a day-to-day basis, greatly discomforting the group.

"Mmhm." Charity left it at. "Is that the door?" she asked, pointing at a door just their size. It was odd; as if the doorknob was moving on its own, sleeping and possibly snoring along with that. Was it alive?

"Yeah, let's—!" Sora was interrupted quickly by a new presence in front of the group.

"Strange." the hooded figure remarked in a melancholy tone, "My original order was to get Naminé, but it seems like I've been stuck with the task to retrieve Exie as well."

"Who's under the cloak?!" Naminé shouted, impatient.

The figure underneath laughed. As he pulled down the cloak, Roxas was underneath it. "It's just me." he said.

"Roxas?" asked Naminé quickly, almost in tears to see him. She walked up to him and put her arms around him. "I thought you were gone with the Organization forever. Why are you wearing the cloak?" she asked.

There was no response from Roxas as Exie walked up to the two of them, confused. "And why'd you have to include me in that little skit?" she asked impatiently.

A twisted grin appeared on Roxas's face, and he put a hand on both of their shoulders. Both bodies seemed to disappear into the darkness.

"What?!" asked Sora, Kingdom Key readied and pointed at Roxas, "Where did you send them?" he asked, confused. Roxas laughed.

Suddenly, he realized...

"Zexion!" Sora shouted.

The fake Roxas's figures seemed to morph themselves to be that of a young man with gray-black hair that half covered his face, and an Organization coat that seemed too big for him.

"Where did you take them?" asked Charity.

"More importantly," Riku interjected, "how is the rest of the Organization back?!"

"You can thank Marluxia for that," the cloaked schemer replied, "just recently, actually."

"How the hell did he find out how to do that?" Nessa asked angrily.

Zexion laughed, "I don't think I would tell you that. You might learn and try to bring back your precious Leander."

This, Nessa couldn't take. Her temper rose to its fullest possibility and she charged at the schemer with her sword. Going right through him, he made himself solid once more and took on the form of someone familiar; definitely Nessa, but old Nessa. Not Sada's body.

"If you think for one second that means we'll go easier on you, you're crazy!" Charity shouted, readying Savior of Balance. It seemed like the only times she ever adopted Nessa's temper was when her friends were in trouble.

She loved being able to call this group her friends.

They weren't sitting at home complaining about relationships, homework, or life in general. They had one goal and had lived with so much loss and adventure that little things didn't matter to them. These were the kind of people that Charity liked. Keeping this in mind, she only fought harder against the schemer.

xxxxx

"Rokusasuuu," Axel cooed through the door. Roxas sighed and walked to it, seeing Axel's smiling face. "I know we're against this whole thing, but look who's here." he smirked. Moving out of the way, the white-blond witch named Naminé stood there, but she looked utterly disappointed with herself.

"Naminé!" Roxas said, suddenly feeling regenerated. He wrapped his arms around Naminé for the first time in a long time, even when they were near each other. Regretfully, she did the same to him. No, she couldn't. She wouldn't let him know that she couldn't even see through Zexion's disguise of Roxas. That would be horrible.

"You have to tell me," Naminé told him, "Why I'm here and why the Organization's back. And who that Heartless is." she brought up, thinking back to the slightly creepy, violet-eyed girl that had thrown Charity into a fit and taken Axel and Roxas back to The World that Never Was.

"I do." Roxas admitted.

xxxxx

"This isn't cute." Charity spat.

"Good." Zexion replied through Nessa's body. The sword only inched quickly and faster towards her, but Charity knew all too well of Nessa's fighting style with that blade of hers. Downswipe, sideswipe, sideswipe, underswipe. She knew it all, hence making the fight much easier. Zexion, however, also knew some of Nessa's memories of Charity's fighting style when she ran through her. This put them at a stalemate.

"I can't sit back and watch this anymore." Kairi grunted as her self-designated Destiny Blade appeared at her side. Nessa hadn't seen Kairi fight enough for him to know her fighting style, if that's what you could call it. With Kairi's help, Zexion was down in seconds.

"I... won't lose now." he said, as he reached out dramatically. He disappeared backwards through a portal, but dropped something on his way.

"Hm?" asked Charity. She was beaded with sweat and her hair was plastered to her forehead. She picked up the dropped item; it was an odd book of some kind. It was black, with an odd silvery-white symbol on it.

"Zexion's book." Kairi glanced at it. She wondered why he hadn't used it in battle. Charity seemed to be wondering the same thing.

"I wouldn't use that." Nessa warned her.

"I don't plan to," Charity assured her, "but think about it." She raised it up to eye level and smirked. "He has to come back to his precious book sometime." She ran her hand down the front of it. It was so smooth.

"Good thinking." Riku said, mindlessly hitting a small Heartless out of the way. Apparently, they had only been working on getting rid of them while Kairi and Charity fought Zexion. Nessa, on the other hand, was almost unconscious for the whole time he was fighting from the shock of running right through and having her memories and data read.

"You hold on to it," Charity told Sora, throwing him the book. He caught it in one hand and looked at the cover himself. It wasn't all that intricate for such an important book. He nodded his head and stuck it in his pocket.

"Let's seal the keyhole." Sora suggested.

Charity realized for the first time that she felt much emptier without Exie, yet somehow the same as she felt before she had ever gone on the journey trying to get Nessa, or should she say Xylia, from the Organization.

Shock only filled them to the highest extent when they found the door; the knob was completely missing.

"But it was there a minute ago." Nessa complained.

"Or was it?" came a freaky voice. Kairi immediately recognized this and clung to Sora's sleeve, who was backing up a pace. A set of teeth appeared before them, and soon after, eyes. A head, a body, and limbs. The Cheshire Cat.

"It was there. I saw it. Go eat tuna." Nessa practically commanded the cat.

The Cheshire laughed, "Gullible isn't in the dictionary!" he laughed.

Sora raised an eyebrow and shrugged at everyone else. "Listen, what happened to the keyhole?"

"The darkness simply took it away!" he laughed, everything disappearing one by one now.

"Well, how do we get it back?!" Sora asked, trying to bide all of his time as long as the Cheshire Cat still had a mouth, "Any advice?"

When all that was left was the mouth, it just laughed and replied, "Never drink soap!" It then, too, disappeared into the nothingness.

"Oh. Wow." Nessa complained.

"I... don't like him much." Quince admitted.

"You're not all that alone." Kairi murmured into Sora's sleeve.

xxxxx

"Don't let Exie anywhere near the Heartless," Xemnas told Saïx, who was holding Exie by the sleeve. Xemnas seemed to be determined to show the girl exactly how a real Organization should act. "You never know what reactions might occur."

Exie growled at the man. "I can feel it. You're going to be trampled in the small amount of power that you already hold, if not by it." **Author's Note: Foreshadowing, people...**

"Right," Xemnas replied heartily, "just like a skeleton is going to replace Santa Claus in the act of Christmas gift-giving." At that note, Saïx decided he didn't want to hear much more of Xemnas's comparisons, and brought her into a spare room that only seemed to be like a dungeon. What kind of a headquarters was this? It wasn't a mansion, a castle, or a house. It didn't even have an official name, at least not one that was used. And the rooms were a lot more uncomfortable than Castle Oblivion, which she had gotten quite used to. Then again, she also got used to sharing a heart with Charity, but that was over for the time being.

In the meantime, Naminé was pulled by the arm out of Roxas's room. "No foreplay in the castle, for one." Marluxia warned her. What a past Naminé had with Marluxia, "Secondly, you need to create the memories now. We have no time to waste."

Naminé could practically feel the sketchbook and pencils in her hand. Although unskilled at drawing, she loved doing nothing more. But for this? Why for this? Kairi wasn't much of a sketcher. She wasn't much of an artist at all; she preferred to speak through her actions, hence Naminé never had much time to enjoy herself.

"How will you like living in The World that Never Was?" asked Marluxia.

"It will be sickening." Naminé replied coolly.

"Seems like you've picked up some of the wench's attitude while you were gone." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll remind you to not forget your place."

"My place here, surely, must have changed since I left the Organization for good. I'm no slave." she reminded him.

"That could have been all true," Marluxia grinned, "except my name's not Shirley." **Author's Note: Totally stole that from Igor Lollipop.**

xxxxx

"Heartless... everywhere." Sora complained. They had almost completely ran through the court room, not much in the mood to deal with an emotionally unbalanced queen with obvious eating problems. Charity said to her on their way to the odd looking forest that 'there are better ways to deal with stress', but was pulled back in before the angry royalty could follow.

Finally, it seemed the last of the Heartless in the area disappeared. Much to their amusement, a White Mushroom appeared and they had gotten a lot of munny, most of which Sora promised to use to buy them all a dinner that night and give poor Aerith a break.

"I haven't seen a doorknob anywhere." Charity groaned.

"I hear ya." Nessa mumbled, resting her elbow on an odd mushroom on the ground.

"Nessa, don't!" Sora shouted. It was too late; the mushroom pushed into the floor and she fell through it. Following suit, everyone else jumped through the hole in the ground. They only ended up in a very odd looking area with a long table and chairs everywhere.

"A very merry unbirthdayyyy..." came a low and long voice as a small figure began to rise from the ground.

"Hades is back! Hades is back!" Nessa complained, running behind Quince, who simply laughed.

"Somehow, I don't think that this person's rising from hell."

"What makes you so sure?" asked Nessa.

"The simple fact that he used the word 'merry' and there's no fire spurting from his bald head." Quince replied. Actually, this head held a hat on it.

"To youuuu!" he sang in a very opera-like voice. Pulling off his hat, expecting applause, Sora only backed up a pace. He remembered this room.

From the hat that was already pulled out, he reached in and pulled out a brown hair. Teapots, plates, and everything of the sort appeared on the table in an orderly fashion, as did corresponding chairs around the table. There seemed to be enough for both of them.

"Another unbirthday." Sora sighed. He had never met the Mad Hatter and the strange hare next to him, but seen them in a painting, in which their expression always seemed to change. This didn't look too good. "Hey, have any of you seen a doorknob?"

The mad hatter giggled ferociously and simply poured some tea into another cup, "Well, that's quite rude! Entering a room without being asked and asking for tea like that!"

"I didn't ask for tea." Sora informed them, throwing up his hands in a mock surrender.

The Mad Hatter's eyes narrowed. "Don't question me, boy. I had a bad day at the stocks, my girlfriend broke up with me, and my rent just doubled. I don't need some insolent teenager with a giant key telling me when I can and when I can't enjoy company at tea time." He seemed to growl at Sora.

Certainly, when they said Mad Hatter they didn't literally mean 'angry' as far as Mad.

"...Okay. Sure. We're leaving." Sora decided. They all took a door out of the odd area. The door was that of a fence. He immediately felt something wrestle under his hand as he put his hand on the doorknob. Wrenching it off, there was the doorknob they had been looking for, gagging angrily at the seven of them.

"I see you've met Eduardo!" the Hare told them all. Turning their heads slowly, they all faced the hare. "Eduardo, please excuse their rudeness."

"We need to unlock this keyhole." Sora told them, pointing out Kingdom Key. The keyhole refused to open his mouth wide enough. "What the hell?" asked Sora.

"Not until you have tea with us!" The Mad Hatter insisted, quite madly.

"We don't have time for this... We have to..."

"TEA DAMMIT." The Mad Hatter ordered them. Silently nodding, they all sat in the remaining seats surrounding the table, leaving one open.

After about an hour of having tea and much ado about an unbirthday, they were finally allowed to leave the table. Sora pulled out his keyblade, and sealed Wonderland once and for all.

"STAY FOR MORE." The Mad Hatter insisted.

"We gotta get out of here." Kairi decided, ignoring Eduardo's cry of pain as she wrenched the doorknob and they all ran through. Ignoring the Heartless in their path, their only want was to go through the forest, through the court, and back to the Gummi Ship.

Reality struck them as they made it to the Court. The Queen of Hearts was shouting angrily at her cards, and pointing at Charity, "That's her!" She whined, "That's the girl that says I eat to deal with my stress!" She seemed on the verge of tears as she shoved a Whopper in her mouth, hence spitting out some of the burger at her cards, "Off wif der heads!" she ordered. Taking out her inhaler, she stuck it up her nose, much to the groups displeasure.

Ignoring this little scene, the Cards crashed towards them all, and they readied themselves for yet another battle.

xxxxx

Naminé had long since stopped creating memories and replacing memories. Since her encounter with Sora, she couldn't bring herself to do it anymore. That's why she made memories for nobody but from herself and taped it in her room at the mansion in which she would watch over Roxas. On this drawing was a picture of a brown-haired girl, her hand on the chest of a boy with dark hair that looked oddly like Riku, and a heart forming in his chest.

"I'm sorry." she whispered.

xxxxx

"There are so many of these things!" Charity complained.

"Why are we even still fighting?" asked Broden, "We sealed the keyhole, now let's go!" Abandoning the battle scene, and surprised that an invisible barrier didn't prevent them from moving too far, they were sucked back upwards by the Rabbit Hole, and back onto their Gummi Ship.

"That was..." Riku gasped.

"Close." Charity finished for him, practically stumbling into his arms. They all obviously had a long day.

"If anyone else comes to take away another member of the group like that, we'll be defenseless." Sora murmured. "But somehow, I think they've got everyone they need." With regret, he started up the Gummi Ship.

"I understand Roxas, Axel, and Naminé, but why would they need Exie?" asked Charity. She seemed to especially need one of her witty comments now more than ever.

"Maybe," Quince suggested, walking over to Sora and pulling the book out of his pocket, "this might tell us."

"How would that tell us what's going on? You think it's a diary or something?" asked Broden, scratching the back of his head. He obviously was not happy about losing Exie.

"I think it might hold Zexion's memories. So it might be." Quince told them.

"I don't know..." Riku murmured.

"C'mon," Quince gave a Sora-like smile, and put his hand to the cover of the book, "live a little."

**Author's Note: Eventful, no? I think I like this new story. I can tell you it will either be the same size or longer than the other two. I have a lot of ideas for the next chapter, so see you then. :3**


	4. Tonight We Fly

CHAPTER IV

Tonight We Fly

(NOTE)

Sorry this one took a while to get up. I've been kind of pressured with a huge change in my life lately, which should have counted for the last three chapters, but I guess they were a cowardly way of escaping it. But I'm done escaping and I still love this fanfiction, so I'ma continue. :3

(/NOTE)

"Blank." Quince murmured quietly to himself as he opened the book to a random page somewhere in the middle. He ran his hand down the sheets, and felt nothing odd. Just a blank book.

"Live a little." Riku mocked. He took the book, closed it, and put it in his pocket. "A lot good that did us."

"At least it wasn't a total waste," Sora called back as he blew up an enemy ship pleasantly, "we sealed the keyhole. But I think we should try for another world before we go back to Hollow Bastion. I didn't see enough fighting today."

Nessa, Charity, Riku, and Kairi all groaned just from hearing this. It's not like they needed rest, no. That would be crazy.

"Where to then?" asked Quince, scratching his head.

"I guess we have to go back to... Hula Island." Sora replied, still feeling stupid just saying the name of the island.

"Hu— oh, no. Not with that girl." Riku shook his head.

Sora grinned widely as they landed only minutes later. Practically crashing onto the sand, obviously Sora's landing had gotten no better. They all ran out of the Gummi Ship practically at the same time to feel the warmth against their faces.

"I wish it was this warm in Twilight Town," Charity said happily while the wind slapped her hair against her cheeks, "We have a lake, but it's facing north so all of the cold travels across it and makes it freezing when it isn't summertime."

"Mmhm." Nessa agreed, nodding her head.

"How was Azure Daybreak?" asked Quince. Where was he from again? It was a world called Jewel's Grove. That's all that they could remember. Did it seem like a town that they lived by? Buffalo Grove? Obviously not the same connotation.

"I hardly remember." Nessa replied, becoming slightly aggrieved just from hearing the words.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Riku asked them both, "Three years?"

"Yes." Charity responded quietly as she nodded.

"I just don't get that." Parker snorted while they trudged their way across the beach. Tourists were lining the place; many of which had a strange white substance on their nose. **Author's Note: Get your mind out of the gutter.** There was one oddly fat one who, just by seeing the group, lost the top of his ice cream to the sand. "How can a world just up and die? Aren't worlds supposed to be eternal?" he asked.

"Apparently not." Sora shook his head, "But I thought the same thing. We haven't seen a trace of Azure Daybreak since."

"We never sealed this place." Kairi reminded them, "We're going to have to find the keyhole ourselves."

"C'mon, Stitch, we have to go feed Pud—!" A little Hawaiian girl running with some blue creature holding on to her hand stopped in front of the group.

"...Lilo." Charity mumbled.

"You didn't die?" she asked Charity unpleasantly nicely.

"Uhm." was all she could muster out.

"Lilo," Sora interrupted, "have you seen a keyhole?"

"Big, cartoon-like, blinks when you poke it?" she asked. Stitch started sticking his own tongue up his nose.

"Yes!" Sora said excitedly.

"Nope." she responded, "But I have to go feed Pudge or everyone on this beach will die of a lightning storm." Certainly, two years had done absolutely nothing to this girl as she skipped away to the ocean, the blue monster known as Stitch shouting something awful to her in an unknown language.

Nessa smiled. "I kinda like her."

There was a scream amongst th tourists, and soon enough the group was being overrun by fat people. When they all cleared out, the group noticed it was nothing but a bunch of Heartless running

around on the beach.

Slashing around only a few times before all of the Heartless disappeared, only more came.

"This is getting us nowhere." Charity complained.

"Then we should leave a Heartless." Riku suggested, "They'll lead us towards the keyhole." Riku was right about this; the Heartless tended to swarm around the keyhole often enough.

"Uhn. Yeah." Charity nodded. Backing away from the Heartless, they watched them disappear as shadows into the ground. Worming their way east from the beach, the group quietly followed.

"This is easier than I thought." murmured Nessa as she nodded. They reached a palm tree, when a surprise so extreme came that they almost dropped their weapons. A black-suited character was pointing a light keyblade at the palm tree, and a blast of white shot out. The Heartless around them fled, and the figure turned around.

"Roxas!" Nessa exclaimed.

He pulled his hood down, Roxas stood there, and smiled at the group. "I can only afford this trip out so I thought I'd help."

"Roxas, what's going on?"

In the little time that he had, Roxas managed to tell everybody exactly what was happening.

"She can give things hearts?" asked Charity.

Roxas nodded, "Which brings me to another point... she's being equipped with memories similar to yours. Periodically, when I pass the room she's being held in, I hear her speaking of Azure Daybreak."

"Azure Daybreak?" asked Nessa excitedly in unison with Charity.

"You don't think," Sora started, "that if that Heartless could give people hearts it could give worlds hearts, too?"

"I guess that all depends on if it was destroyed because it lost its heart." Roxas said.

"It had to have been," complained Charity, "how else could it have been the Red Shadows

that destroyed the world."

"That was an assumption." Kairi shook her head, "It could have been that they just... blew it up or something."

"Don't even say that." told Nessa, shaking her head.

"But it's a possibility." Sora interrupted, defending Kairi.

"That's nothing we have to worry about right now. If I'm here any longer, Xemnas might find out. Just keep unlocking the keyholes." With that, Roxas faded into a dark portal, and found himself back in his room in The World that Never Was.

"Figures." Riku said, trying to end the commotion, "The only easy keyhole was the one that Roxas decided to be helpful with." Riku could never quite get over the feud with Roxas, but they tolerated each other. Now that Roxas had memories of both when he was in the Organization and when he was in the alternate Twilight Town, he had a hard enough time trying to not get those two confused.

"We could always get the one in Hollow Bastion." Sora suggested as they made their way back to the Gummi Ship.

"Was the fight even taken there?" asked Kairi.

"Sora!" came Lilo's voice from far away. Sora bent down to see her in her full height; she was quite wet from swimming, as was Stitch, who was standing next to her and had extra arms and a couple antennae now.

"What's up?" asked Sora.

"Those black things took over the big dummy and now he's after us." The Big Dummy? Who was that? Nonetheless, they had no time to find out as they heard not too distant stomping.

"Riku, Charity, and Broden, you go back to Hollow Bastion and lock up the world if it isn't still locked. We'll stay back here and take care of... uh. The big dummy." Sora told them.

Deciding not to argue because they had all done that enough, they ran back to the direction of the Gummi Ship.

Standing before Sora, Kairi, Quince, and Nessa was a giant, blue alien-like man, but he had a Heartless sign on his chest and his eyes were a glowing, bright yellow. Then again, they couldn't exactly tell if that was normal. Questioning no longer, they readied Destiny Blade, Maybe Memories, Nessa's sword and Kingdom Key.

xxxxx

"Where were ya, Roxas?" asked Axel, who was leaning against the wall of his room. They were becoming accustomed to hanging around in there as Xemnas allowed Naminé to do her work in his room.

Naminé was quietly drawing at the table. The drawings looked very intricate, much more intricate than the ones she used to make just for fun. She didn't seem to be enjoying it either. She did, however, look up and smile brightly while Roxas entered the room. That was enough.

"I was sealing a keyblade." he replied.

"Roxas," Naminé spoke up for the first time in hours, practically slamming her colored pencil next to her paper, standing up. "I want them to make it through the dark barrier and find us as much as you do, but I won't let you risk your own neck for that." She grabbed him by the arms, "If anyone will, I'll do it."

"No, no, no. Definitely not." Axel interjected, "None of us risk ourselves anymore. We'll do what they say, unless it's an attack on them. At that point, we'll sneak Naminé out and we can fight the Organization back."

Fighting the Organization back. Such strange words to hear from the Organization's very own number VII. He had truly reformed.

"Sounds like a plan." Roxas smiled. He threw off his Organization coat and put it on his bed, to reveal his casual clothing underneath; something he was much more used to nowadays. "I'm going to go get water." he lied, walking out of the room. He walked down the hallway slowly and carefully so he wouldn't be noticed, something that reminded him of what Nessa used to do to visit him when she was lonely or confused.

He approached a normal looking door and walked right through it without even pulling the handle so he wouldn't cause a commotion or unnecessary noise from well-trained ears. Walking in the room, it seemed no different than his own. It was dark, although, so he turned on the light.

The Heartless was sitting there; she seemed so much different, if you could even call it a 'she'. The physical appearance was the same, but she was more aware. She knew what she was doing, and much to Roxas's surprise, he found a box labeled 'Nobody Hearts' to the side.

"Does Xemnas know you've made these?" Roxas asked, hoping she would be able to respond.

"They're not right. I don't remember how to make them the right." she mumbled. Although she was now literate and audible, she seemed melancholy in her way of speaking. Although, she had her hands in such a position as if she was holding something when really, there was nothing in her hands. Out of a burst, another heart had appeared in her hands. After only a second of examining it, she sighed, and threw it into the box with the rest.

"How can you tell they're wrong?" asked Roxas.

"I've always been able to tell." Naminé had obviously been very productive on these memories. Roxas thought for a second; maybe if he was able to get it through to this Heartless that she had never lived through these, they would bring Naminé back with the rest of them.

"What's your name?" he asked. Roxas was interested in the name that Naminé had chosen for her.

"...Name?" she asked. She looked down at her hands. "I... name...? What is my name?"

Roxas was truly in utter shock. She hadn't given the Heartless a name? He would have to ask her why later.

There was one name that Roxas had particularly liked. "Calypso."

The girl's head turned. "Hidden." she responded.

Roxas shook his head, "Not the meaning. That's your name; you've forgotten already?" he gave her a lopsided smile.

"That's my name?" she asked. Looking down and saying something, Roxas realized Naminé seemed to give her a sense of humor. "Gullible isn't in the dictionary."

Roxas laughed. "Really. Trust me."

The Heartless turned around. For an imitation of Charity, or a part of her, she really was beautiful. She looked real; like a person. Was Naminé really enjoying making her a 'real person' this much.

"I'm sorry." Roxas said. "That the Organization is making you create these hearts."

Calypso cocked her head to the side. "I've been with the Organization my whole life." she told him. "Don't you remember?"

Nodding sadly, Roxas told her, "Yeah, I remember."

"I made one successful heart last night." she said, right as his hand was on the doorknob. She although, did not move at all.

"For who?" he asked.

"His name was Anton." she replied.

Roxas almost broke the doorknob under his grip. "Where is he now?"

xxxxx

"Where is the keyhole?" asked Charity angrily.

"I think we've looked everywhere." Broden scratched the side of his face, and then stuck his hands into his pockets.

"I wouldn't be surprised." replied Riku as he laid his back against the wall. Charity walked up to him and pressed her body against his. Riku laughed. "Trying to make me happy?" he asked, "Why?"

"Because I think the keyhole might be in Merlin's room." Charity told him.

Obviously he would have needed some comfort beforehand.

xxxxx

"This... thing... won't... die!" Nessa complained, straddling the neck of the giant alien and slashing his thick skin over and over again with her sword, getting absolutely nowhere. She eventually settled for the hilt in hopes of putting him in a coma, which failed as well. The keyblades didn't seem to be getting much of anywhere, either.

Meanwhile, Lilo was trying to get in on the fight no matter how much Sora and begged her not to; she insisted on biting at his leg, both because it 'tasted like chicken' and was the 'only way to really knock him out'.

Stitch, however, was fighting just as hard as the rest of the group. He seemed to be using two odd laser guns that the rest of them refused to ask exactly what they were made of. Unfortunately, these weapons (and possibly Lilo's biting) were the only ones that actually affected him.

"I give up." Sora mumbled, stepping backwards. "There's gotta be a different way to—..." He was stopped as Stitch took his final shot at 'The Big Dummy', and sent him down the edge of the cliff that they had been fighting on.

"There we go." Nessa said brightly.

"Well," Quince said, trying to act as though he was the one that got rid of the creature. He walked up to Lilo and bent over to meet her eye-to-eye, "Things should be okay now. If you ever see any more bad things, little girl, tell us."

"How can we tell you if you live in another world you moron?" asked the little girl.

Quince frowned. "Charming." he trailed off as he stood up to his full height. "Let's leave. This world can be swallowed fucking whole for all I care."

"No need to be Mr. Roger." Nessa shrugged.

"Oh... crap." Sora's voice shook. "They've got the Gummi Ship."

Quince smiled pleasantly. "Oh. Of course. So you're saying that we're stuck on this happy little island with this happy little girl and a happy giant blue alien that could be resurfacing any second because it's a giant blue crapload of 'immortal'?"

Kairi backed away slightly.

"Pretty much." Sora shrugged. Nessa shook her head; surely he wouldn't live more than a couple minutes.

Quince just smiled, and pulled up Maybe Memories, pointing it to his head.

"No, no, no, no, no," Nessa trailed on as she slowly brought his arm back to his side.

"Stitch can take you on his space ship." Lilo suggested.

"Aren't little girls supposed to be happy?" asked Quince.

"Aren't keyblade wielders supposed to be... not suicidal?" she asked.

"SPACESHIP!" Stitch shouted out to them, in surprisingly good Japanese. "WE GO ON SPACESHIP KAY?"

Stitch took Sora by the hand and led him towards the spaceship, everybody following him.

xxxxx

"Anton?" asked Naminé. She shook her head. "I never gave her a memory like that. She must have really done it; it probably means that she's ready to make real hearts." Naminé pressed her pencil to the paper and began sketching a 'good' heart.

"You never named her." Roxas mentioned.

Naminé shook her head. "I couldn't think of anything."

"She's calypso, now." nodded Roxas.

Axel laughed, "That's a weird name, Rox."

Roxas shrugged, "I like it. And it's unisexual, so if you ever wanted to make her a boy, it'd work." he laughed.

Naminé gave a sad smile. "It's a scary thought." she admitted, "to think that I'm really making a person, or a Heartless. I've only strung together a few memories, the farthest I've gone was replacing somebody in Sora's childhood. But a whole lifetime... It's hard and scary."

"I'd believe it." Axel sighed.

Roxas looked around at them; suddenly he felt like they were Sora, Riku, and Kairi. In their own messed-up way, they almost were, and not by the fact that Sora and Kairi were Roxas and Naminé's somebodies.

xxxxx

Charity, Riku and Broden almost died of shock when they finally came across the keyhole, hidden in a place in Merlin's room that they really didn't want to go digging through. Refusing to look, Riku turned his head around and pointed Way to Dawn at the keyhole. It sealed up and they made their way out of the room as quickly as possible.

As they rushed out, they found themselves face-to-face with Tifa. Both Broden and Riku far outdid her in height, but she still seemed intimidating standing right there with a look on her face. "What were you doing in... Merlin's room?"

"Sealing a keyhole that shouldn't have even been there." Charity responded for all three of them. Both of the boys just nodded.

Tifa sighed. "Your friends just came back in a really odd looking spaceship that a little blue monster drove them here in."

All of their eyes widened together, and they rushed out of the house.

"I... totally forgot that we took the Gummi Ship?" Charity tried to take the blame as they came face-to-face with an annoyed Nessa, a scared Kairi, a mental broken down Quince, and the same flowery Sora.

xxxxx

"They're crazy if they think I'm giving away my weapon to that Heartless once she's done with those fake memories." Exie murmured as she stomped down the hallway. She had messed things up in at least eight rooms already and Xemnas had threatened to send her to the basement.

A girl was talking to herself in a room. She stopped in front of the door and pressed her ear to the wooden door. "It's not Larxene." Exie said to herself. As she had sat through one meeting already, she knew of Larxene's annoying voice. This voice was much calmer and much younger, and actually sounded female.

Ignoring all urge to stop doing things wrong so she's not thrown in the furnace, she stepped through the door.

In a flash of white, she was out cold.

xxxxx

A knock on the door woke Riku up from a dead sleep. He was becoming much too big for his bed, as height was the only affect that time had on him. It was doubtful that he would be getting any taller after nineteen.

"Riku?" asked Charity, walking in. Riku sighed out of relief. "I can't sleep." she complained.

Riku smirked. "So are we going back to the times three years ago that we used to talk only by moonlight?" he asked, holding out an arm. Charity laid down on his bed, and snuggled into his arm, resting her head on his chest.

"I guess so." Charity was obviously sleepy, but couldn't sleep anyway; leave it to her. "Maybe it's because my Heartless is gone."

"Could be." Riku mumbled quietly.

"It's weird." Charity whispered to him, "Sometimes I see some of the things that she's seeing or see some of her memories."

"I guess that's natural," he whispered back, "she is a part of you, a potential part or not. Kind of like Nessa and Sada."

"The past, the existing, and the potential. Is that all that we are?" asked Charity. It was true; the past was their memories, the existing would be them, and the potential would be Almost Somebodies and Heartless. "But where do Nobodies lie?"

"They don't." Riku shook his head, "Technically speaking, they're not supposed to exist." Charity nodded. She knew this; it just felt odd being said by somebody else.

As Charity finally managed to close her eyes while lying comfortably between Riku and the wall of the other side of the bed, another vision came into her head. Her eyes shot wide open.

"I think she brought back Anton."

**Author's Note: Eventful, ne? I bet you're itching to find out what happened to Exie and Calypso. I love that name; so happy I used it. XD See you next chapter!**


	5. Baby, It's Fact

CHAPTER V

Baby, It's Fact

(NOTE)

This chapter might get a little bit... extreme. I realize I'm rushing things in this fanfiction, but a lot will happen. There may even be two split up plots if this one ends too quickly, which I don't plan on. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and enjoy this one! **Disclaimer: ...[insert something witty here I don't own Kingdom Hearts. :D**

(/NOTE)

In the dead of night, everyone was awoken. Charity and Riku had gotten out of there comfort zone, and Charity's hands were now shaking from the news she had yet to deliver to the rest of them. Still, Sora, Kairi, Nessa, Quince, and Broden sat patiently on the couch in the living room, Charity and Riku standing in front of it.

"Periodically, I've been seeing some of the Heartless's created memories," she announced to the group. '_What am I doing?' _she asked herself. "May as well get to the point." she decided. "She gave Anton a heart."

Naminé jumped right out of Kairi just by hearing this, as did the rest of the group jump just as much as she had. Everyone had except for Nessa, whose eyes just widened and she clenched her hands to the side of the bed.

"He's dead." Nessa whispered. "I killed him."

"Not quite." Riku interjected. "Did you wonder why he was so hard to just defeat when you were fighting him? He sacrificed his heart to Kingdom Hearts to become a Nobody and live for all eternity." He glared at Nessa, who didn't seem to want to believe him.

"He tricked you." Charity said simply. "He tricked all of us, and he's back. We don't know where he is or if he's planning anything at all, but he's back and we've got a big, big mess on our hands tonight." Everyone on the couches were still staring at her, feeling hopeless. "It may feel like," she suddenly got confidence and stood right on the table, "it's hopeless. Everyone we've defeated seems to come back. Every task we accomplish only gives us ten more we need to accomplish again. Nessa isn't the only one with a loss.

"We've all lost something to Anton, to the Organization, to others. Some of us our homes, some of us our dignity and spirit, and others our lives." Charity put her hand to her chest. "I swear that we'll get Roxas, Naminé, and Axel back, we'll destroy the Organization, destroy Anton and retrieve my Heartless, if it's the last thing I do."

"Let's do it!" Sora exclaimed, putting his hand in the center of the group palm-side down. Everyone else imitated this and put their hands on top of Sora's. "All for one and one for all. That's what Goofy and Donald always used to tell me."

"And that's what we should live by." Riku told them, "Nobody gets left behind, nobody gets abandoned, and most importantly, nobody gets killed. We're all in this as a whole, not individually," he glanced over at Broden for a second. "Let's go seal some worlds."

xxxxx

There was a strange power the two could feel as the bulk of their selves, or lack thereof, conjoined. A Nobody and a Heartless, one potential and the other forever existing, becoming one. They felt alive; they could _feel_. In the place where a Heartless once sat was now a Somebody, opening her eyes for the first time.

Silvery brown eyes, almost as if a translucent sheet was laid on both of them. The hair was short and chocolate/red colored that hit her just below the shoulders. In her hand appeared the Destroyer of Balance; she was thinking for herself. What the Organization had said about needing a weapon to make hearts was untrue; she could direct her powers just fine for what Naminé had given to her. The Heartless had even brought somebody back.

But she wasn't a Heartless anymore.

"What am I doing?" the girl asked herself. Both Exie and Calypso's voices spoke at the same time. Her skin was a pale color with the slightest yellowish tint underneath the moonlight that shone in her 'room'. "None of these memories are real."

Staring down at her hands, she clenched them into fists, Destroyer of Balance crushing under her right grip.

"I will destroy Charity." she murmured to herself, "I refuse to live the alternate life of somebody who is already living. There isn't room for both of us here."

But how was she to do it? Wasn't she a captive of the Organization?

In the hand that had crushed the Destroyer of Balance, a new keyblade appeared. The arm was black, with weaving, golden ringlets surrounding it and running up the arm, yet somehow without touching it. The top of the keyblade seemed to shift between silver and black as the glory of it shone under the moonlight. Standing up, she ran the keyblade down her own hand. Blood. Sharp as a knife. The keyblade disappeared when she bid it to.

"The Organization does not command me."

xxxxx

"It's late." Broden complained, "Couldn't we have waited until the morning to go and seal keyholes? Or better yet, next week? I'm hungry. Is there a McDonald's in this place?" he asked, greatly annoying Charity. He was starting to remind her of Leander. He was just missing the green and red hair.

Savior of Balance appeared in Charity's hand, and began to pulse rapidly as though it had a heart beat of its own. Then again, if each world had a heart, what could make them so sure that her keyblade did not? Shrugging it off that she was just eager to fight, she let the keyblade whisk itself away into the air around her.

The Gummi Ship finally landed after Broden's ongoing complaints about fast-food and how it's 'so fattening but so good'. "Whoa! You guys didn't tell me that we were going here!" Charity purred as she swam around underwater. She had now become a mermaid, and her tail was a pretty, light blue that turned to yellow at the tip of her fins.

"Sorpresa!" Sora smiled. **Author's Note: At school, at the end of the year we have award days in all of our classes, and my Spanish teacher said that the awards would be a 'sorpresa', and the next day she told us 'I forgot the awards at home. Sorpresa!'**

Nessa, on the other hand, was just as enthusiastic but had a plain, purple tail. Kairi's was a light pink, Sora's was a normal, deep blue, and Riku's was a shocking yellow. Broden and Quince, however, both had different shades of green. The only thing the girls seemed to be worried about was the fact that they were only equipped with a very uncomfortable shell bra.

"Where's the keyhole under here?" asked Kairi.

"It's in Ariel's grotto, I'll show you." Sora told them. They swam out of the small cavern that they were in, only to be confronted by the mermaid that Sora had known as Arielle herself. They both stopped abruptly before they hit each other, and Flounder was swimming right next to her. He had obviously gotten older and fatter since the last time they met, although Sora couldn't figure out why. He then realized that it was probably because times moved differently in other worlds.

"Sora! You have to help me!" the redhead pleaded.

"Nice to see you too."

"My daughter, Melody, became a mermaid somehow," she told them, "even though she's a human. I think it might have been Ursula's doing, but you destroyed her with Donald and Goofy a long time ago, so I don't know who it is."

"Actually, we just came to seal the keyho—..." Broden was interrupted.

"We'll help find her." Sora nodded.

"Thank you so much." Ariel said sadly. "And those Heartless are back again. Does that mean a Heartless would have taken her?"

Sora thought for a second. What would the Heartless want with her? "We'll find out." He nodded, and led the group in a seemingly random direction, although he obviously knew exactly where he was going.

"It's kind of dark under here." Nessa commented.

"Probably the Heartless." Charity suggested.

They reached a strangely strong current that they all had to swim up, which became increasingly difficult the farther they went. As they finally were able to branch off into a small cavern, they swam through it and discovered the area of the sunken ship like they had once three years ago, or at least half of them did.

"You think she would be in here?" asked the worried mother.

"Where else? You said she was adventurous, right?" Of course, Sora was left to do all of the talking to these messed up Disney characters.

"Adventurous probably isn't the same as exploring a sunken deadbeat ship." Charity remarked.

"I think she's right." Kairi said.

"I kinda like the ship." Nessa remarked.

"Can't we at least get tacos?"

"Will you all just shut up!?" asked Sora, who now couldn't concentrate.

"I'll shut up when I get a big mac." Broden grunted.

At that moment, and odd fish dropped an anvil on Broden. He started to complain very loudly about how some 'Azul Twilight' keeps beating him up.

"Hush." Nessa sighed, putting her hand to her forehead.

"I don't see her." Riku called to them. Apparently, while everyone else was giving Sora a headache, he had actually been exploring the ship to see if he could find the younger mermaid anywhere, but had come up luckless.

"Told you." Charity shook her head.

"What'd you tell me?" asked Sora dumbly.

"Let's just try Ursula's old lair?" suggested Ariel. Even fully grown, she was as daring as ever as she boldly ran into the giant hole in the underwater wall to where Ursula's lair used to be.

"She's too mary-sue ish. Let's trap her." Charity suggested happily.

"No, no." Quince sighed. He just decided to follow after her, and soon, everyone followed suit.

"We're never going to lock that keyhole are we?" asked Kairi.

Riku shook his head. "I don't think we will."

xxxxx

"What are you doing, Heartless?!" came Xemnas's angry voice as Calypso bursted into the scene. The Organization members that were in the meeting all jumped out of their chairs to see her on the white floor. She looked definitely different; but why?

"Thanks to Exie, I now have the powers of both a Nobody and a Heartless." she told them, as if reading their minds. "Out of a reaction, we combined. I am now a Somebody with power, and you no longer command me. Now, I am your new leader."

"Says who?" asked Larxene angrily, pulling out her kunai which were laying readily in between her fingers. She shot one of them out, and without even flinching, Calypso created a barrier which rebounded the kunai back at Larxene, missing her head by an inch as it hit the wall.

"You missed." Larxene spat.

"So did you." Calypso raised an eyebrow. The girl had certainly gained an attitude since they had first met; she had also gained strength unheard of.

"What makes you think you have the power to overrun my Organization?" asked Xemnas, stepping up in front of everybody. At this Marluxia's face screwed up in twisted anger; how he wanted control over the Organization.

"This." she said quietly. She held out her hand. Nothing came out of it, but darkness began to wrap around their leader. Slowly and surely, it wrapped around his neck and began to squeeze tighter and tighter.

Before they all knew it, their leader disappeared into the darkness once more.

Staring at where the Superior stood just a second before in utter shock, all eyes eventually trailed back to Calypso. Although Roxas and Axel really had nothing against Xemnas leaving, what would they do?

"Unless you wish to serve a painful death such as that; one that cannot be brought back due to simple _acquired _abilities," she looked at Marluxia, "you will listen to me and do as I command." This girl was obviously not afraid that she was a Somebody and she could bleed and be injured, for her power obviously outdid even the strongest Organization member.

"Apparently," she spoke as everybody went silent, "your task is no longer to receive a heart from me. Only one of you receive a heart, and that one shall be the member that carries out this task, as I wish to stay here and learn more about the Nobodies and Heartless."

"What's the task?" Roxas broke the silence.

Calypso grinned at him. Apparently, she had remembered Roxas, including the fake memories that Naminé had given her. "I will give a heart to whoever can destroy the girl known as Charity first." she smirked.

Axel pounded his fist into the wall behind him, "What are you talking about? Why?" he asked angrily.

"Fake memories or not, a different name or not, _I_ am Charity. I am two thirds of her whereas she's just a body with a heart. There's only room for one of us in the Universe of Kingdom Hearts, and surely if one stays while the other does as well, the universe will be destroyed."

Vexen stepped in. "I understand. Because her Nobody and Heartless made a Somebody when combining, having two of the same exact person, appearance-wise or not, would trigger an unbalance in the universe and destroy it."

Calypso grinned. "You're smart." Her eyes scanned the Organization. They were all at least ten years older than she had been given the appearance of, but she was not intimidated in the slightest, "Besides," she spoke, "It's a matter of pride. I want her gone."

xxxxx

"I remember this," Sora whispered, "The last time we found the keyhole inside of Ursula's pot thing and we also found Odol hiding out in there."

Charity laughed. She couldn't remember the last time that Odol was actually an enemy to them all. After that, her thoughts just trailed back to Kiur and then to Anton. She still couldn't get herself to believe that he was back.

"Help me!" came a fragile voice, obviously from outside of Ursula's lair. They all swam out fast to enter the opening again where the sunken ship was held. At the bottom of the area, a young mermaid with long, black hair was tied down by seaweed. Her mouth had apparently been tied down as well, but she managed to wiggle it off of her face.

"Melody!" Ariel cried. As she tried to run up to her daughter, she was stopped by a giant half-octopus woman that could have been Ursula had she not been so skinny.

Sora raised an eyebrow, "Who is that!?" he called to Ariel.

"Morgana!" Ariel hissed, not at Sora but at the octopus. Sora had guessed that she had just pulled an Ursula and made herself huge in attempt to stop them. Although, Ursula had hardly needed it to begin with.

Kingdom Key whipped into Sora's hand before anybody else's did, although the weapons had appeared, following suit. The Gunblade that Broden wielded turned out to be very useful in battle, although the wielder himself could have something else said for him. Brutally attacking the Octopus, she proved stronger than her appearance.

xxxxx

"What happens to me?" Naminé asked Calypso quietly, who had visited Roxas's room solely to talk to Naminé.

"I'll need you here. You've spoken to Charity before, haven't you? Obviously you can tell me her weaknesses." Calypso responded.

Naminé's eyes widened, and she looked down, sadly. Why was it she was always being used in the worst ways.

"Surely you'll have to tell me," Calypso threatened, her keyblade appearing in her hand. It shown almost as gloriously in the daybreak that had fallen upon them all since she had destroyed Xemnas herself, "or I may have to get rid of Roxas."

"You!" Naminé cried out angrily, "I've given you Charity's memories along with the ones where you lived in the Organization. Why can't you figure out her weakness yourself?!" She obviously didn't want to sell out one of her best friends so directly.

"So what you're saying," Calypso started quietly. Her voice and appearance was so much like Charity's that it almost made Naminé sick, "is that her weakness lies in her memories?" She stood up and closed her eyes. "Who is it that this Charity cares for the most?" she asked herself as she turned away from the girl.

xxxxx

Morgana was weakening, and showing her own weakening by yelling out cries of pain almost every time she was hit in the face with a keyblade. At that point, almost everybody understood that her face was her weak point. Attacking as if they'd never get to hold a keyblade again, the giant octopus finally made her fall.

"She's gone." Ariel sighed. She was hardly able to help, but she was a good distraction and was able to keep Melody safe at the moment.

"Mom!" Melody cried, "I'm sorry, I'll never go back to the ocean again. I promise."

Ariel shook her head, "That isn't the solution, Melody," she said, holding her close, "I think we should tear down the walls to the ocean. We all deserve to be able to come back here."

Although nobody seemed to have the smallest idea as to what she meant, they all smiled and watched upon the scene giddily.

Sora shot up, "The keyhole!" he told them. They all jumped and followed him out of the very creepy area, and ended up in an open part of the ocean. There was a small hut that seemed to be made out of rock, but when Sora pushed a rock aside and they went in, it was definitely bigger than they had thought.

There were shelves everywhere with the oddest objects lining them, all of them very random and not from the world underwater, such as shoes and forks. Sora smiled as he saw a crystal trident head that seemed to be stuck in the wall, and pointed his keyblade.

"Uh, Sora?" started Riku.

"There's... no keyhole...!" Kairi and Riku had obviously been wrong, because at that second a keyhole appeared in its place, which Sora took only a few seconds to seal up.

"Trust me from now on, 'kay?" he asked the rest of them, smiling.

Riku and Kairi both laughed. Obviously, this was a friendship that wouldn't die, not because it started so early but because it was so strong.

"Braaavo," came a drawling voice from behind them. Spinning around, they saw a man in an Organization suit; he had blond hair that was mostly spiked up and a smug face, carrying a sitar at his side. Sora immediately relaxed as he realized it was him on the scene; he was one of the easiest Organization members he had to fight.

"You have Naminé," Charity interjected, "what do you want?"

"There's been a change in leadership," the man named Demyx smiled at them, "That is to say, Xemnas is no longer our leader."

"Anton?!" Charity exclaimed.

Demyx laughed a little bit, "Haha; I guess you'll have to find out. But, we were promised a heart if we carried out one task, ya see? I really don't want to, but if it means I can become a Somebody I could probably make a band and, well, you know what they say, anything for rock and roll, right?"

"What do you they want you to do?" asked Sora, stalling as he waited for Kingdom Key to appear dramatically at exactly the right moment.

"Kill Charity." The Keyblade appeared at the perfect time, but Sora was pushed away.

"Wanna kill me?" she asked, and looked back at the rest of them, "Then you fight me, one on one." Charity could hardly remember a time that she ever fought anybody one on one, even during her fight with Kiur she was eventually joined by Nessa and Riku.

"I told you," he said in a baby-like voice, "I don't want to, but I have to."

"Whatever." Charity groaned. Savior of Balance appeared in her hands; it was pulsing again. In a way, it seemed much stronger than before.

"Dance, water, dance!" he shouted, strumming his sitar. Water versions of Demyx appeared much to Charity's disgust. It seemed as if she was being timed to destroy them all before she could even get to Demyx, but just with a few strikes they were all gone. She then began to hack the hell out of Demyx, who seemed to have the same ambition back.

"You know you're not gonna win." Charity told him, smiling.

"What makes you sure?" he asked. He looked seriously confused; poor guy. Stupid and didn't want to be in the Organization.

"Think about it, what damage can water do except maybe whiplash? Especially under water?" she asked.

"You have a point." Demyx mentioned. It was odd being able to carry on a casual conversation with this Organization member.

"You want a heart that bad?" asked Charity as she knocked Demyx backwards. He nodded and swam right back up to her, summoning more of his water forms. "If you say 'dance water dance' one more time I think I'll go crazy." she told him.

The battle, although, did not last very long as Demyx fell to the floor on one knee. "Worth a shot." he smirked. "After all, the darkness isn't so bad." He disappeared into nothing.

"Get ready," Sora called at her from behind, "that's by far the easiest Organization member you'll ever fight."

"I hope so." Charity murmured. "But they're under a different commander?"

"It has to be Anton." Riku decided, "Why else would they have brought him back?"

Broden raised an eyebrow, "They _want_ to be under the command of somebody besides Xemnas?" Surprisingly enough, they had a point.

"We can't think about that right now." Charity shook her head. "The point is that we've gotten rid of Demyx, and if Xemnas isn't the leader anymore he's probably killed himself, so eleven Organization members to go."

"Minus Axel and Roxas," Nessa reminded her, "So it's nine."

Charity shook her head, "That's what I'm afraid of. What if we have to fight them?"

Sora shook his head, "You were right before, we can't worry about this right now. We sealed the keyhole, let's get back to Hollow Bastion for that rest we never actually got.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Quince sighed. He was obviously just as tired as the rest of them. Nessa found it very hard to resist the temptation just to fall asleep on his shoulder when they finally made it back on the Gummi Ship. Imagine how awkward he would have to feel if he even knew that she was with Hayner?

"Anton." Charity looked at Riku, who looked back down at her, "He had a Way to Twilight, right?"

xxxxx

"How does it feel?" Calypso asked Anton. He was standing in the middle of the meeting room; he was brought back days before, but now had just woken up.

The boy had certainly grown while he was in the darkness. His hair was shaggy and longer, but still spiked up in the back while flat in the front and strawberry-blond. The boy's build was somehow more muscular and real, and his eyes had finally fit his face. "Different." was all he said. Obviously, since he was in the darkness, he had become quiet again.

"Charity's weakness," started Calypso, "her _only_ weakness, unfortunately," she went on, "is her friends. You're her best friend's cousin, and a former member of their little 'order'. Do you know what that means?" she asked him.

"Means I'm fucked." was all he said.

Calypso's eyes narrowed, "it means that you're going to have to fight. If any of them do manage to kill you, they will be too weak at heart to survive another attack."

"I'm not dying again." he growled at the girl.

"You never died in the first place." she told him, "Remember? You sacrificed your heart to Kingdom Hearts. You were never really dead, as your body just faded into the darkness when they all left the scenery. Have you, perhaps, tricked yourself into thinking you were dead as you tricked them as well?"

Anton grimaced, and he placed his hand on his chest where Nessa had stabbed him. How he had deserved it, but he had no intention of joining that side. Light, balance, darkness, it all lead to chaos. Couldn't he just be nothing again?

"Take this room." she told him, no, commanded him as she changed the subject. "My room is now that of Xemnas's, my rightful room, as is my position. I've done you well by giving you a heart," she reminded him as she stepped out of the room, "don't disappoint me." She closed the door behind her.

Anton's fists curled up in anger; why was he so angry? Did he really hate being back that much?" At the first sight of a box in the corner labeled 'hearts', he kicked it as hard as he could. The hundreds of hearts fell out from the box, and shattered the second they hit the floor. He stood in the center of the room once more, his pulse quickening and his anger rising only by the second. "We'll see, Calypso," he laughed, a brilliant idea coming to mind, "we'll see."

xxxxx

Hollow Bastion was definitely comforting that day. The sun was shining, although it had to have been at least three pm, it felt like morning. Riku and Charity had gone for a walk together hand-in-hand, Broden, Kairi and Sora went back to watch television, and Nessa played Monopoly with Quince. It was an odd thing to do, but at least it kept them both entertained.

"Why would Anton want to kill me?" asked Charity to Riku.

Riku shrugged, "Everyone wants to kill you. You're the link between the darkness and the light and they're probably under the impression that they'll get your power by killing you."

Charity nodded, her grip on Riku's hand intertwined with hers strengthening, "That doesn't matter, though, because we'll defeat them, and we might even restore Azure Daybreak, right?" she smiled at Riku.

Just by seeing her smile, Riku's heart melted; he missed it so much. With his other hand, he felt for a small object in his pocket, but pulled his hand back out. Facing Charity now, he pushed her hair out of her face caused by the wind blowing on it, and kissed her on the lips.

"Tonight, let's just not worry about that." He winked at her, a very un-Riku-ish thing to do, and kept walking.

Charity found it very odd how so many couples were able to be so emotional with their partners when near them that they couldn't even smile, because God strike her down where she stood, smiling was something that Riku could make her do the best.

**Author's Note: I suppose I'll end it there because I have a massive headache and I thought the ending was cute. So, I'll see you next chapter, and I'm looking forward to it. :3**


	6. Where was Life when it Had a Meaning?

CHAPTER VI

Where Was Life when it Had a Meaning?

(NOTE)

I'm mainly making this chapter because I won't have time to make one tomorrow due to another football game that lucky me gets to march in. Plus, I need to get this plot rolling a little farther. So, I hope you enjoy it:D

(/NOTE)

The next morning, it was storming heavily. Just getting up and out of bed was hard enough for Charity; she always slept the best during storms. She couldn't tell if it was because it was nice to know that something was happening outside, or that the plants were getting watered. The second part was probably because watering the plants was a chore for her back at her old home in Azure Daybreak.

Azure Daybreak...

"I've been thinking," Charity told all of them, "What happens if Azure Daybreak is restored?" she asked them all. "Will everyone still be alive? Or did they die with Azure Daybreak?"

Kairi sighed, "When Hollow Bastion was destroyed, the people were only scattered into different worlds, but they all came back when the world was restored, so you should be alright."

"But," Sora called from the computer, which he periodically would kick Cid off of so he could check what world they could go to next, "we're never going to get that Heartless to restore Azure Daybreak if we can't even enter The World that Never Was."

"Or find out why they want to kill Charity." Broden mentioned.

"Or get rid of the Organization members." Quince finished.

"Or get back Axel, Roxas, and Naminé." Nessa added.

"Or—..."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Charity stopped Riku before he could talk, "we've got a lot to do. What's the next world?" she asked Sora.

Sora gave a face that only a mother could love as he stared at the screen. "Whoa, we haven't been to this one before." he remarked. Charity sprung out of the couch to go see, and the rest of them followed suit.

"Isn't that where Aurora comes from?" asked Kairi.

"And Goofy, Donald, and I met those three fairies at Yen Sid's tower. They came from here, too." Sora told them.

"That's also where Maleficent comes from." Riku said, pushing his way through Broden and Quince to see the screen. "Why is their world just now appearing? Maleficent can't be back, can she?"

"I don't know." Sora sighed. "We destroyed her. Maybe it's just that the world's keyhole has finally been unlocked."

"I hope not." Kairi remarked, "That would mean that somebody's going around unlocking keyholes. That could mean that the keyholes that we've already sealed back up are being unlocked."

"Doesn't look like it." Sora said, checking the past few worlds they have been to.

"Then why just now?" asked Nessa.

Sora shrugged, "World's move. It's probably always been there, just off the radar." That seemed like a good enough explanation.

"Well, we can't sit here and decide why it's there, as long as it is let's go. What's this world called?" she asked them.

"Spinning Wheel." Sora said dumbly as he stared at the screen. "Weird. Anyway, let's go!" They all set off to get on the Gummi Ship. They could hear a newly woken up Cid cussing them out from the other side of the door for leaving the computer on. At least Merlin hadn't shown up in the past few days. **Author's Note: I believe I might have jinxed that.**

Sora, of course, took his seat in the cockpit, but was immediately pushed out of it by Charity, "I don't trust your driving. I'm taking the wheel." After all, at least she had gone through Driver's Ed while Sora was stuck re-building a town.

Her lift-off was perfect, and she destroyed every ship in sight, even the unnecessary ones.

"You're wasting the ammo!" Sora complained.

"Shaddup." she told him, simply. At least her landing didn't make anybody on the ship nauseous; that could probably have been achieved from the constant spinning and breaking to escape enemy shots.

"We're here." Charity said happily as everyone else stumbled out of the ship. They were in a forest; a very clean and pretty looking one, at that. It would have been better if two birds weren't chirping annoyingly above them in a tree.

"Shut up." Broden said tiredly as he pointed his Gunblade at the poor birds. They squeaked in fear and flew away.

"Broden!" Kairi shouted.

"There's a cottage up ahead," Riku said, who never seemed to hesitate in a world for too long. As they stumbled through the forest, avoiding any branch that they could make to make a cracking noise after seeing way too many horror movies, they came to a clearing with a tiny cottage up ahead. There was obviously a lot of hustle and bustle happening in there, because Sora could already hear the voices of the three fairies.

"Wonder what they're doing." Nessa said.

Sora shook his head. "Wouldn't be surprised if they were fighting." He remembered when he first saw these fairies; they had given him the drive outfit that he always used. It was almost too bad he outgrew it; but there wasn't enough pink.

"Let's go in," Riku said, who had already approached the door. The second he put his hand on the handle, **Author's Note: Are you expecting another moving doorknob? **the door swung open, practically taking Riku's arm off.

"Company!" came the three fairies in some sort of a harmony sing-song. They were all old looking; there was one skinny, tall one wearing a green hat and clothing, who seemed to give the lowest and most unamused portion of the harmony. The other two were rather fat, one of them wearing blue and the other wearing pink. Sora knew them as Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, but all three of them looked slightly busy.

"You're not Aurora!" said Merryweather happily, a huge grin on her fat face.

"Good! We're hosting a party for Aurora! She's picking berries! Come in!" Flora exclaimed, yanking Riku in by his slightly bruised hand. Without hesitating, everyone else followed, but Broden was shut out.

"Oh, sure, leave me out here." he told them.

"Okay!" Fauna called back.

"We really don't have time for a party... you see, we're trying to lock a keyhole... Oh my God, would you let go of my boyfriend?!" asked Charity angrily to Flora, who was still holding his bruised hand quite hard and whisking him towards the kitchen.

"Taste the cake!" Merryweather told them.

"No thanks..." Riku grunted.

"Taste the cake!" Flora repeated.

"That's okay, I don't want—"

"TASTE THE DAMN CAKE!" Fauna yelled angrily, shoving her hand in the cake and stuffing it into Riku's mouth.

"It's for Aurora!" Flora started, and then began to laugh somewhere between sweetly and maniacally.

"Obviously having your keyhole unlocked has done a great deal of damage to your _mental health_," Kairi started, "so can we please go and unlock it now?"

"FIRST EAT THE CAKE." Fauna exclaimed and fell on her back.

"What happened to her?!" asked Sora.

Merryweather shook her head, "Oh, dear. You see, we've been under a bit of emotional stress since Aurora went and knocked herself out by stabbing her hand on a spinning wheel. We like to pretend that Aurora's just out picking berries so we throw a party for her when she comes back!" The fairy's eyes twitched.

"Aurora?" asked Sora. "She stabbed her hand on a spinning wheel?"

"Her thumb, to be exact." Flora nodded.

"What if I told you we could go wake her up? Would you let us go?" asked Sora.

"ONLY AFTER YOU EAT THE CAKE." Fauna cried from the floor. Nobody paid attention to her. "Eat the cake..."

"Of course." Merryweather decided, and opened the door. They practically all sprinted outside once they were given the opportunity, only to find a huge surprise on the cottage's footstep. Broden was talking to a man about his age that almost seemed to be out of a fairy tale. He was dressed like a knight and had his face in his hands.

"Guess what, guys?" Broden told them, "A girl's asleep so he's gonna kiss her and wake her up." He looked over at the boy.

"What the hell will kissing do to wake up Aurora?" asked Nessa. Charity punched her in the arm lightly.

"It's a fictional story!" the man cried to them, "The curse she was given as a baby means her one true love has to wake her up by kissing her and I'm the only man in the story besides her father and a bunch of black creatures are on the way and I'm scared!" He then shoved what looked like a Big Mac in his mouth. **Author's Note: I should tell you ahead of time, I'm sorry for all of the comic relief here; but I need some of it. XD**

"Okay, okay," Kairi started, trying to comfort the man, "first of all, eating isn't how you should deal with your stress. Second of all, we'll help get rid of the Heartless. See these?" she asked him as her flowery keyblade appeared in her hand, "These are keyblades. They can get rid of them. See?" she asked the disturbed man.

He nodded and wiped away his tears, "My name's Prince Phillip. My father's name was Prince Phillip, too. And my grandfather's name was Prince Phillip, and my great—..."

"He does that for comfort." Broden shuddered. "He got to about eight 'greats' when you guys all came out." he shook his head at the mere thought.

"I suppose everyone's emotionally challenged since Aurora left." Charity shook her head. As Kairi helped Phillip up by his hand, they all trudged through the forest.

"Which way is Maleficent's tower?" asked Sora halfway through the forest after at least an hour of walking. They were all surprised that no Organization member had appeared yet. After he had stopped mumbling, Phillip managed to tell them that she was in Maleficent's tower between his bawling. He looked at Sora.

"The opposite direction!" he cried.

"I can't take this anymore!" Nessa shouted. Her temper caught up with her again as she tackled Phillip to the ground with her hands around his neck, violently thrashing at him.

"Nessa! Nessa! Control your temper!" Charity told her best friend, somehow managing to wrench her off of Philip.

"...Oh. This isn't an angry sex scene?" asked Phillip, disappointed.

Nessa once again charged at him.

xxxxx

"...This is quite odd." were the only words that Calypso managed to mutter out as she watched down on them from a magical device that allows her to see what the group was doing. Somehow, she managed to steal this from Maleficent's old hideout.

"We know Nessa's weakness, at least," Vexen told her, "her terrible temper." Vexen had since been helping Calypso with everything she had been doing because he seemed to be one of the only Nobodies that actually had the ability to help.

"But that doesn't help with Charity." she murmured. "I have no intention of killing Nessa, Riku, or any of the others, but if it's the only way to weaken Charity, then I certainly will."

"What I'm trying to understand," Vexen interrupted, "is how you have absolutely no care about her friends when you were equipped with memories of Charity's life by Naminé."

"I suppose she never got to giving me the 'friends' part." Calypso's hand swelled up as her fist clenched tightly.

"...She certainly is beating him up very well. And she's not even using a keyblade..."

xxxxx

After the little panic attack, the group finally managed to flip the opposite way out of the forest and towards Maleficent's tower, even though they had already lost an hour of voyage time. Riku, for one, was quite afraid of passing Merryweather, Flora, and Fauna's house one more time. He felt that if anyone forced him to drink tea or eat cake ever again he would hate the English for all of eternity. He showed his discomfort by crossing his arms as they walked.

Phillip, however, insisted on singing Humpty Dumpty the whole way through the forest.

"You want to re-enact that scene?!" Nessa shouted at the Prince, causing him to start crying once again. She couldn't decide what she disliked more; the crying or the nursery rhymes. Nessa put her frail hand to her forehead and sighed.

"I think I'm ready to just find this keyhole and abandon the whole idea of saving this princess." Charity murmured and the prince let out an even stronger whine.

"If it makes you feel any better, Aurora might be the only sane one in this world." Sora shook his head. What had even happened to the Good Fairies? Obviously Aurora was a huge part of their life, almost like a grandmother with her prune juice. Or grandchildren; either one.

They finally managed out of the forest, to come to a very shocking sight when the entered the clearing. The three Good Fairies were tied to a tree by their feet, shrieking for help or their medicine; Charity couldn't exactly tell which. Standing next to them was a cloaked figure, laughing as the blood rushed to their heads.

"What do you want with them?" asked Sora.

"Nothing," replied the Organization member, "It's funny." He backed up and began shooting at the three fairies.

"Xigbar!" Sora shouted.

He pulled down his hood, and smiled happily at the rest of them. "Care for a round 'a Shoot The Fairies?" he asked pleasantly, and then pointed his gun arrows at Charity, "Or keyblade wielder?" Charity immediately summoned Savior of Balance and charged at the Organization member.

xxxxx

"She asked you for Charity's weaknesses, then." Roxas said. Naminé was sitting on his bed, and Axel was resting his back against his wall. Roxas, however, was simply standing in the center of the room, talking to them.

"She's probably the strongest being I've ever seen." Naminé admitted, "I could feel the strength pulsating from her. Is that why Charity wields the Savior of Balance? Because she's that strong?" Naminé had never gotten to fight Charity, nor has she ever wanted to, but she could tell that Charity was just as able of a fighter as Sora, but nothing better. Had she not been trying hard enough all this time? Was this all of her potential power.

"Of course she's strong." Axel dragged, "she got rid of Xemnas." He played with the gloves that were plastered to his hands from sweat; he had just been sent to search an odd world with dinosaurs to see if they were even there when they had gotten off of radius for Calypso to see for one reason or another. They insisted that a brontosaurus was called a long-neck and that leaves shaped like stars were the tastiest.

"She can't be very smart," Roxas commented, "if she has no idea that there are two Organization members and one honorary that are on Sora's side." On Sora's side. That was such a strange thing to say; sure, he had fought with and against Sora, but he was always on some sort of side of his own that he could never really describe.

"There's not much we can do until Charity's gotten rid of every Organization member but us. Once we're sent there, we'll re-join the group. Then she'll have to go over there to see why we aren't fighting, and it's lights out for Calypso."

"Actually," Roxas said, "I wish our members were a little stronger so they could just be held off and have to go back later. That way, Sora and everybody can just seal enough keyholes and come here themselves."

"Lazy." Naminé muttered.

xxxxx

Xigbar fell to one knee, and disappeared into a portal. Obviously, he was going to go recollect his strength to fight them again later. This was probably just the opposite of what Charity wanted, as she snorted and let the three fairies down.

"PERFECT!" Fauna exclaimed, "WE CAN THANK YOU WITH CAKE."

"Nothankswe'regoodlet'sgo." was all Riku mustered as he ran out of the scenery, closely followed by everybody, and especially closely by Phillip.

"Which way's the tower?" asked Sora as they came to a fork in the road.

"North." he cried.

Sora sighed. "There are two choices. East and west. Which one?" he asked him.

"North!" he cried back out to him.

Sora sighed. "West it is." To stop him from going completely off the path, Sora had to violently hold him by his wrist, which caused a lot of 'tee-hee's from the prince.

"Let's drop the dead-weight and get Mikey Way to kiss him or something." Charity suggested, finally siding with Nessa's original idea of just killing the prince. He had somehow progressed from Humpty Dumpty to Jack and Jill. Every time Jack broke his 'crown' he would go into a five-minute laughing fit.

"Finally!" Riku exclaimed as they saw a giant tower in front of them. He fell to his knees. "Thank God!"

Entering the tower, they could immediately smell the stench of rotted fish and something they would do better to not try to identify. Making it to the top of the tower, they saw Aurora laying peacefully on top of a bed.

"...So do I have sex or kiss her?" asked Phillip.

"Ugh!" Nessa shouted angrily. She took his head and shoved it into the Princess's face. She woke up gasping for breath from the kiss, and smiled at the sight of Phillip, although screamed when she saw the rest of them.

"Romantic, romantic." Nessa shook her head, and pushed them out of the tower window.

"N-Nessa! That was a Princess of Heart!" Sora shouted.

"It's a fairy tale. They won't die." Nessa waved it off as they ran down the tower.

"Never again are we entering this world." Riku told them sternly, "Never again." They looked to the side as they listened to the Prince complain of a broken finger and the Princess scratch the back of her head gingerly.

"Forget 'bout me?!" came Xigbar's voice angrily as he materialized where they stood.

"I hate how Nobodies can do that." Charity murmured.

"You jealous?" asked Xigbar.

"No." she said simply, letting Savior of Balance appear back in her hands, and slashed out him as much as possible. He wasn't too hard to fight at all, but that could have been due to the fact that she had already fought him ruthlessly less than an hour beforehand.

"Charity, behind you!" Nessa shouted as Xigbar appeared behind her. Before Charity could turn around, Xigbar had his hand on her throat.

"Let go of her!" Riku shouted angrily, and stabbed him in the stomach with Way to Dawn. Obviously, this had been the final blow, because he disappeared into the air, but not before a lovely cuss-fest at the group.

Sora sighed. "That's enough for one day. Eight members left. Let's go back to Hollow Bastion before we lose our sanity like Phillip."

"I'm perfectly sane!" he cried back at them, stuffing french fry after french fry into his mouth, causing the group to look away in disgust.

The ride back to Hollow Bastion couldn't have been any slower.

**Author's Note: ...Well. Ahem. This was a bit of an odd chapter. So much comic relief and I didn't even add Merlin yet. Well. Anyway. R and R. The next chapter will be... er... less... brain melting.**


	7. Lie Still, Close your Eyes

CHAPTER VII

Lie Still, Close Your Eyes

(NOTE)

I just came back from a very cold football game, and I feel very comfy now. That aside, I promised a more serious chapter and here you go. Although, I must admit that Merlin will come, but probably not in this one. Enjoy.

(/NOTE)

Yawn. Stretch. What time was it? What made nights after sealing keyholes feel so short? Her brain was pounding to the same pulse that even Savior of Balance was giving off the day before. Coincidence? Possibly. Probably. She couldn't think, her vision was swimming, maybe if she just got up she could regain her consciousness.

_Slip._

What just happened? Charity was falling through the floor, but somehow she kept upright. Before she could even take in what could possibly be around her, she found herself in a blank, white room. She was sitting on a chair; it was wooden and uncomfortable. Mustering all her strength to stand up, she found herself unable. Charity breathed in deeply and stayed where she sat, until she actually looked forward long enough to notice another presence in the 'room'.

"Charity." the girl stated. She was sitting on a chair opposite Charity by at least five feet. The elbow of the girl was propped on her crossed legs, leaving her hand to cradle her head by her chin in a lazy fashion. She had the same, if not redder, auburn hair as Charity and the same eyes, except it was as if there was a sheet of moonlight translucently covering them. A strange, silver Organization coat draped over the girl. Her lips curled into a smile; a smile like hers; the one that pushed out her cheeks to make her look like a little baby, and dimples dangerously close to the edges of her lips.

"Who are you?" Charity asked, rubbing her left eye. Could she believe what she was seeing? Probably only just. Surely she would be much more skeptical had she not just woken straight out of a dead sleep; another one full of memories, this girl straight in them.

"It shouldn't be that hard to figure out." she told Charity in a calm voice, "I'm over half of you."

"Over half of me?" Charity repeated. Surely enough, she was as full as she was when she woke up a minute ago; physically, anyway.

"Some would say the better, as well." the girl nodded. She stood up and out of her chair to look around the girl. "It's so sad," she admitted as she circled Charity like a vulture, "Aside from melany, I can't find one thing physically different from us." She stopped behind her chair, "Thin, weak wrists. Average body weight. Full bottom lip, thin upper. Thunder thighs, but maybe that's your fault. Big feet. Bigger smile. Wavy, medium length hair. Can you tell me what's different about us?"

Charity sighed. She wanted to say '_That I don't know who you are and somehow you know my full anatomy and name_', but just the simple presence of the girl behind her told her. "You're not a Somebody."

"On the contrary," she told her quietly, "I would have had no idea, either. A Nobody and a Heartless make a Somebody. Just like you. But somehow, we're still the same person. We both can't live on this earth together. One of us has to go."

"You have me here." Charity snapped, "I don't know why I'm here at all, but I am. So why don't you try to kill me?"

Her mirror half simply laughed at her. "I plan to. It's why I destroyed the Destroyer of Balance; it wouldn't be able to touch you. But why not now? There's a simple explanation for that. Well, maybe not all that simple, because I myself don't even know why, but..." she faced her at her side, and put her hand dangerously close to her cheek. "_I_ can't touch you, either." When her hand finally got close enough to brush against her face, some silver barrier rebound it back at least a foot away as if shot by a rubber band. Wincing from the recoil, she brought her hand back to her side.

"You're not me." Charity decided aloud, "I don't understand how you look like me, but you aren't me." Her hands shook just by saying something so strange.

"Really?" asked the girl. She took two steps to be right in front of Charity. Kneeling down right in front of Charity's feet, she brought her face closer to Charity's. "Look at me. What differences do you see?"

Charity stared into the cold eyes. Same flawless cheeks, flippy hair, and deep stare. "There's cold. You're cold. Not physically, but on the inside." She stared closer. "You're my Heartless, aren't you? But you look different... You're my Heartless and _Exie_, aren't you?"

The girl nodded, and stood back up. She took her seat across from her. "I'm missing my real Somebody. I'm a fake. But if I can get rid of you, I may feel completely whole. And there will be no imbalance in the world. One Charity. Balance. That's... what you've always wanted, wasn't it?" she asked her other half.

Charity shook her head violently; how could her only want in the world come to rebound against her? "Then I'll just have to kill you off." She didn't realize how this would help her in the long run; with her Heartless and her Nobody disappearing from existence totally, what would happen to her? Would she die? Or would she simply live a life of feeling empty once more.

The girl stood up and smirked. In response, Charity had stood up as well. "All's fair, then." She held out her hand; she wanted Charity to shake it.

"All's fair." Charity held out her hand as well, but the second she tried to shake Charity's hand, her whole body rebounded backwards. She was shooting backwards in a flurry of silver and white, back, back, back. Where was she going?

_Slam._

Right in the wall, she fell down to the floor, and stumbled into a pile of person onto the floor.

"Charity!" exclaimed Riku, who had apparently been looking for her in her room. He ran up to her and helped her stand up. "What happened?" he asked her.

Charity opened her eyes; they seemed almost clouded over in a familiar sheet of silver.

"What happened?" he asked. He then shook his head, "Don't tell me, I won't be able to help. Let's get you to Leon, Cloud, Aerith, Cid, and Tifa." He put his arm around her shoulders to help her out of the room.

xxxxx

"That explains your eyes." Aerith nodded, after a long while of sitting and listening to Charity's exact story. Although unwanted, somehow, every Keyblade wielder, Broden, and Nessa had all joined in on listening to the story. "When you tried to make contact with your... other half, I suppose, you gained an attribute. But I wonder if you gained anything more than an appearance?"

"Anything more?" asked Charity. She looked down at her hands. "I don't feel anything different. But that's why Savior of Balance was acting up; she said she got rid of Destroyer of Balance." The mere thought scared her; if she were to ever get Exie back from this girl, what weapon would she have? Charity was not used to referring to Exie as a simple Nobody, but a sister in a sense; her better half when she only believed herself to be one of two instead of one of three.

"But why did your Heartless and your Nobody combine?" asked Sora, who seemed to bring up this question multiple times in the middle of her story. Kairi shook her head.

"They were both at the Organization, weren't they?" she asked.

"I suppose so." Charity nodded. "So does that mean that Anton plans on using my other half to get to me?" she asked nobody in general.

"Or maybe she's working with Anton." Nessa suggested, nodding her head.

"Or maybe," Riku brought up, "and this is a big 'maybe', but maybe _he_'s working for _her_."

Nessa stared at him. "Do you even remember how strong Anton was? Why could he be working for somebody with Kiur gone?"

"He's easily swayed." Charity nodded, "Or else he never really would have been working for Kiur in the first place, especially against us."

"Besides," Riku said, "he wanted to be in the darkness, or else he wouldn't have saved his heart from death so he could linger in the dark realm. Your other half had to have brought him back because she needed him for something."

"But what?" asked Charity. She put a hand to her head.

"We can't worry about this right now," Sora told them, standing up, "Once we seal up more worlds and get into The World That Never Was, we'll find out for sure."

"You're right." Charity said quickly, standing up as well. "Where to next?"

"Traverse Town. I think you could use a little less excitement for one day." Sora told him.

"I don't know," Riku started, "There's usually some strangely large Heartless blocking the keyhole to that place." He would only remember because that was where he reunited with Sora for the first time on their first journey.

"And if she shows up there...?" asked Charity.

"Don't worry," Nessa, strangely cheerfully, told her as she pat her friend on the back, "she can't touch you, 'member?"

They all left outside for the Gummi Ship, Charity lingering back farther a bit, "Yet."

Anton faded back into the shadows behind him; nobody had seen him there.

xxxxx

"I've been to see her." the strawberry-blond boy told Calypso, who was synchronizing strange items. It seemed as though she was making a keychain. "She looks a lot like you."

"She looks just like me." Calypso grimaced, adding a few ether into her batch of whatever it all was. Just the smell of the room could give Anton feelings of darkness. "Where are they going next?" she asked solemnly, assuming he had stayed for a conversation.

"Traverse Town." he responded to her, although not with much enthusiasm.

"Zexion said that he's going to go destroy Charity. He must be desperate for a heart," she cooed, "I'll give him a chance. After all, I pre-made hearts for all of them so I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of making the one who destroys Charity a heart at the second. I simply dispose of the hearts of the failures."

"That's one way to be lazy." Anton suggested.

"He's ready to go," came Vexen's voice from outside the door. Naminé gave a squeak and ran out of the opposite door quietly and unnoticed, which was thankfully still open. If anyone were to catch her when she was trying to hide, it would be Vexen. The Chilly Academic stepped through with Zexion standing beside him. "Where to?"

"He'll be going to Traverse Town." Calypso told them. Finally, the keychain was done. Attached to a sapphire chain was a silvery heart that had a lightning-bolt shaped break down the center. She called upon her odd looking keyblade, and added the keychain. All that changed about it was that the keyblade now looked platinum silver. "Moonlight Radiance, I expect good things out of you." she whispered to her keyblade.

xxxxx

"There are no Heartless." Charity remarked after only a couple of minutes after getting out of the ship. It looked less like a town and more like a city; there were at least three shops already in plain view, and a town center in which they seemed to be standing at.

"Not yet. First District doesn't have any for some reason." Riku told her.

"Where is this place, anyway?" asked Nessa who had visited it before, but never bothered to ask exactly where it was or why it was there.

"It's where everybody ends up when their homes are destroyed. At least, most people."

Charity's heart dropped in her stomach. Could her parents be there? Maybe her sister? Or her friends? She glanced over at Nessa; she seemed to be thinking the same thing. They smiled at each other. "Let's get this done. If it means finding my other half again and having her restore Azure Daybreak, as fast as possible." She didn't even want to think of the possibility of her refusing. After all, it was technically her home world too, as she used to be part of Charity; so she must feel some obligation to it.

"To Third District we go!" Sora said happily, sticking his chest in the air as he led the group forward. Behind him, Quince mimicked him, earning a lot of snickers from the group. Nessa, Charity, Riku, Kairi, and Broden just followed along as always.

The second they stepped through the huge, brown doors of first district into second, they were bombarded by shadows and knights. "That's lovely." Charity remarked as Savior of Balance appeared in her hands; she was lucky that she had so much experience with minor Heartless, that it only took the smallest bit of effort from only a few members to get rid of them all.

Sure enough, after taking a couple more steps in, many more appeared.

"Forget about the Heartless for now," Sora mentioned, "Follow me!" He ran ahead, and everyone else ran as well. Broden lagged behind and was constantly being beat up by a few Heartless on the way. If Sora wasn't so generous with potions, he probably would have lost his heart to a simple Shadow soon after.

They found themselves running through a second set of doors after only a minute or two of running. This part of town was a lot prettier, but much more abandoned due to the vast amount of Heartless. "I said ignore 'em!" he shouted to Quince, who insisted on killing at least one Heartless for every ten feet they ran.

"Ignore Heartless?" he asked as though Sora was crazy.

"Just wait, you'll get to have fun with a big one in a second." Sora stopped in front of what looked like a fountain with mosaic artwork of bells on the side of it. "You all wait here," he told them, "I need Riku and Kairi to do a Trinity with me so we can ring the bell. After we ring it three times, a big Heartless will appear. Fight it, and we'll be down in a minute."

Charity, Nessa, Quince, and Broden nodded. They waited for a minute while Charity and Nessa quietly conversed about whether or not their family would be here. Quince seemed utterly confused, just looking at Nessa. Soon, he interrupted the conversation. "Nessa?" he asked.

"Yeah, Quince?" Nessa asked him, turning back around. Charity started a conversation with Broden only seconds after.

"You seem... distant. Like, you don't want to be with me. I dunno. Maybe I'm overreacting." he decided aloud.

Nessa sighed. She didn't think she could take it anymore. "Quince, you were knocked out for two years. Since then, I've been with—..."

Ring. Ring. Ring.

'_Saved by the bell_.' thought Nessa. Surely enough, an odd looking Heartless fell from the sky. Why from the sky? They couldn't even say. It seemed to be separated into different parts, as if it had no joints at all. It's hands, feet, head, and body were all separate parts.

"Nessa and I will get the hands and feet! You two get the body!" Charity commanded them all. What a surrogate Sora she seemed to be. Avoiding any pounding possible from the hands and feet, both Nessa and Charity slashed the hell out of the Heartless.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi jumped into the scene. As if noticing the pattern here, Riku branched off to help with the hands and feet while Kairi went to help destroy the body. Although the most inexperienced with a keybalde even in comparison to Charity, she was a definite help. Sora broke off to attack the head solo.

Meanwhile, Zexion stood in the shadow of the higher level, back against the wall, observing the battle tactics. "They aren't half bad." he admitted quietly to himself.

Both hands were the first thing to go, then the body, and then the feet. Sora finally finished off the head, with only a minor injury on his arm which he cured with a simple potion. Possibly one of the easiest 'boss' fights they had ever gone through. Charity pointed out Savior of Balance as she saw the keyhole appear on one of the mosaics on the wall. Seal. Click. Keyhole sealed.

"Great!" Nessa exclaimed, "Now let's take a look around and see if our families are here?" she asked Sora.

"That sounds okay." he said.

"Not quite." such a familiar voice stated that the group didn't even have to think to ready their weapons before they even turned around to face the cloaked schemer.

Charity's face screwed up, "Just another one here to try to kill me, I suppose?" she asked the silver-haired man.

"So that's what you got when you and Calypso connected; besides her silver-brown eyes, I mean. You got her paranoid thoughts." he smirked.

"I'm not paranoid!" She charged at him with her keyblade. Although blocked, she was excited at one hand; she now knew her other half's name.

"Of course you're not." he smirked, and ran right through her. Bam. She was knocked out, and Zexion took on the appearance of Charity. "This will make killing you so much easier." He raised the mirror Savior of Balance and pointed it down at Charity.

Riku slammed into him like a football player and knocked the other Charity right over. "You've got something about becoming girls lately, don't you?" he asked.

Zexion growled; he still had a personal score to settle with the whole group. "You have something that belongs to me, Dawn walker." he told Riku. He remembered only all too well when he had fought Riku back at 'Destiny Islands'.

Smirking, Riku patted his pocket. "It's blank. We were hoping it was a diary." Zexion's face only became more angry, although he wasn't usually very good at showing emotions. This time, he ran right through Riku. Knocking him out, Charity came back to as she had her form back.

"What...?" she asked, confused. Riku, or who seemed to be, was standing right in front of her. But there was also a Riku knocked out on the ground.

"Charity," the Riku in front of her started, "I knocked out Zexion. C'mon, let's go see if your family's here." He held out his hand. Zexion sure did have a way with acting like Riku.

Charity, although, had no idea that he was Zexion. She looked over at the other Riku lying on the floor. "I couldn't have been knocked out for more than a minute. How did you...?" Wait. She had been knocked out. And something was different about this Riku; a different scent, maybe? Not taking 'Riku''s hand, she stood up, and walked over towards the other.

Zexion shed his form as easily as a lizard shedding its skin, and Riku opened his eyes. "Charity?" he asked.

"Pathetic!" Charity growled as she spun around and charged at Zexion, careful not to go through him. Bookless and formless, he was weakening by the minute.

"How could you fight someone with no way of fighting back?" he spat at Charity.

"Don't _ever_ pretend to be Riku!" she shouted angrily at the cloaked schemer. Within minutes, he was lying on the floor, his body decomposing into darkness, flying into the sky with no trace of returning.

"Don't think I won't be back." Zexion told her. Charity desperately wanted to think of something witty to say, but she was too blinded by fury to think of anything as the last bit of the schemer disappeared into the atmosphere around them.

"Charity?" came a voice that Charity hadn't heard in three years, "Is that you?"

Although in doubt that she even heard this voice at all, Charity turned around. Standing before her was a girl with long, brown hair with dyed in bleached streaks and hazel eyes. She was wearing a pretty eyeshadow, and a pink tank top with a red skirt and furry boots. She also donned a necklace with a pearl at the end of it. She had Charity's nose, eyebrows, and face shape.

"Amber?" asked Charity. Even the last time that she had visited Azure Daybreak she hadn't seen her. She crashed herself into the older girl's arms, and they both wrapped their arms tightly around the other.

"Okay, okay," she laughed, "No more touching." She pushed herself away slightly. Amber had a definite more feminine voice than Charity. Looking over her shoulder she looked at Nessa, "Nessa? You've changed a bit." she laughed, and looked at Charity, "Where have you been?"

"Who... is she?" Quince whispered to Nessa.

"That's Charity's sister, Amber." Nessa seemed almost as excited as Charity was; this way, she knew that their world was still able to come back from the darkness, that it hadn't just been 'blown up' like Kairi had before suggested.

"It's a long story..." she murmured.

"I know about the keyblades," Amber said, "a woman named Tifa came to town last year to tell us." Charity's eyes widened. Tifa knew that this girl was here? Well, she probably didn't know that she was related to Charity, so she couldn't be held accountable.

"My Heartless," Charity said, "she has the power to give away hearts. Somehow, she combined with my Nobody to make a Somebody. If we can seal enough worlds to get rid of the darkness surrounding The World that Never Was, where they are right now, we could get her to give our world its heart back and bring it back from the darkness." Charity managed to get this all out in just a few breaths.

Amber blinked. Charity guessed that it had been hard to persuade her that keyblades even existed in the beginning, because she never really believed in the supernatural. Obviously, she was in a good enough mood to know that her sister was alive, so she smiled. "That seems harsh. I hope you can do it. Just don't get yourself killed, okay?" she smirked.

Charity smiled and nodded. "I won't." She looked around, "Hey, are mom and dad here?" she asked her excitedly.

"No," Amber started, "They were here, but they went to go help out at a place called The Radiant Cornfield or something like that to fix up after a huge fight."

"The Radiant Garden?!" asked Charity, expectedly.

Amber nodded.

"I was there once; right before that battle happened." Something inside of Charity was set afire; her family was safe and her world really did have a chance at being restored again, after three years of living in Twilight Town. But what would she do about her friends? What would Nessa do about Hayner? Her silence was broken by Amber.

"But Nessa's mom and uncle are here." Amber said brightly, "Wanna see 'em?" she called over to Nessa.

The girl smiled giddily and Amber showed the group the way to where her mom and uncle were currently living, where Amber was right next door.

She was only _showered_ in hugs and kisses the second she walked through the door, "You look different," her mom said in the middle of a tearful embrace, "but you're here."

Her... mom.

Nessa didn't even know what to say anymore. She was a Nobody the last time they met; they had memories of her being born with them and her father leaving her uncle to take care of her implanted; they weren't real. But were they real now that she was a Somebody?

She didn't even want to think about that. The truth was that, fake or not, she had memories of her mom and uncle and she loved them and her head was pounding and she just wanted to cry, cry, cry in her mother's arms.

"Mom..." she mumbled her story into her mom's slowly dampening shirt.

"Shh, it's okay." she told her.

"I want to stay with you." she decided, looking up at her mom from the embrace. The rest of the group had very shocking expressions on their faces.

Her mom shook her head, "I want you here." she nodded, "But you have an obligation to your task. You started it, you really should finish."

Nessa turned over to her uncle. He nodded.

"She's right, Bear." he told her. 'Bear' was an old childhood nickname of hers that she had gotten since she was little.

"I will, then." Nessa nodded, "but I'm going to come back to visit." she decided. The group smiled, and Nessa looked around the house. It almost looked exactly like their house back at Azure Daybreak.

"You know what," Sora said, "why don't we stay at Traverse Town tonight? Kairi and I can stay with Gapetto, Nessa can stay with her mom and uncle, Charity can stay with... Amber, was it? And Riku, Quince, and Parker can stay in the streets."

All three of them gave a lopsided grimace.

Charity shook her head, and grabbed onto Riku's arm, "Riku can stay with us!" she nodded. Riku laughed and kissed her on the cheek.

"Ooh," Amber started. Charity forgot that she hadn't seen her in three years over the course of ten minutes; she hadn't changed one bit, "Charity's got a boyfriend?"

Charity laughed, "Do you?" she asked.

"Several!" Amber said happily.

Everyone was silent, and Charity began to make a turtle shape with her hands, "Awkward turtle..." she trailed off.

xxxxx

"Another failed!" Calypso slammed her hand onto the arm of her high chair as the remaining Organization members sat in the room. Zexion, Xigbar, and Demyx were missing, leaving only ten occupied chairs. That would be only seven more Organization members that Charity would have left to fight, subtracting Calypso whom she couldn't even consider.

Receiving nothing from the group, she looked down at all of them. "It's an eighteen year old girl wielding a giant key. What's so hard about that?" she asked them all.

"She _has_ at least six able-bodied companions with her, you know." Larxene interrupted.

"Number XII, that was rhetorical!" she stated angrily. The nymph shrugged lazily, and closed her eyes as she reclined in her chair. "I have brought back a very strong fighter from the darkness that I plan to go take to destroy Charity. I will give one more chance of an Organization member to go destroy Charity before I send Anton to do it himself. As for the rest of you, you will all be destroyed. Tell me, who wishes to go before Anton to destroy them _right now_?" she asked.

The first hand to shoot up was Larxene's. Calypso nodded. "Then I bid the rest of you good-bye." Her keyblade shot up into the air and pointed outwards; Vexen finally understood what was so important about the keychain she was making as the keyblade multiplied into seven more; apparently, she planned on keeping Vexen because he was the only really smart one left.

"No!" Roxas shouted, jumping down at least forty feet from his high-up chair. Axel followed after him. As the rest of the keyblades shot forward and stabbed the remaining members in the gut, they all disappeared into the darkness. However, Calypso was not satisfied. Growling, she jumped out of her very own seat to chase after numbers VII and XIII.

"Shit!" Roxas exclaimed as they rounded the corner. "We've gotta get to my room! Naminé's in there!" The two of them managed to round the corner and slam the door shut before Calypso made it to the door. She pounded on it, but Axel held it closed with his back; weaker or not, he still had stronger physical muscles.

"Naminé!" Roxas shouted, "We have to leave here! Calypso's destroying everybody except Larxene and Vexen, and—!" He was simple in awe of what he saw.

Naminé was holding three hearts in her hand. Taped to them were the names Axel, Roxas, and Naminé in Calypso's handwriting. "I'll explain later!" she exclaimed. She handed them both a heart.

"Here's to you, Naminé!" Roxas said, in total shock of what was happening. Without thinking, they all three willingly accepted their hearts into their bodies.

Cold room. Shaking floor. Beating door. Naminé's soft lips.

Roxas could _feel_.

The door burst open, and Calypso pointed her Moonlight Radiance at the group of three, now, Somebodies. Along with a heart, they must have a Heartless. They were now Somebodies with the same abilities as Calypso.

The girl growled. She knew exactly what was going on. "You really don't want to do this." she growled as Axel spun his chakrams, Roxas summoned both Oathkeeper and Oblivion, and Naminé backed up a step.

Much to her surprise, a keyblade similar to Kairi's appeared in Naminé's hand, except cherry blossoms ran up the front of it and ended in a beautiful, pink flower rendition of the key part of the keyblade. The keychain had two cherries dangling on the sides. She pointed the keyblade at Calypso. "We were _born _for this."

**Author's Note: How very... eventful, no? So, will Naminé, Roxas, and Axel destroy Charity? What will happen with Anton? Will Larxene destroy Charity, or will they get the better of them and make it to The World That Never Was? Well, what do you think? We still have seven or so chapters to go. So! See you next chapter!**


	8. A Little's Enough

CHAPTER VIII

A Little's Enough

(NOTE)

I realize the last chapter was pretty intense, and this chapter may get that way as well. In fact, the last half of the chapter may turn into a songfic; I know, pathetic, but this song really fits my idea. You'll see. The idea of doing this is making me very upset, but I've planned on doing it since I started and I think it's time. Enjoy:D

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I don't own anything because I'm not legal yet. My parents own everything. They don't own Kingdom Hearts! I don't own A Little's Enough by Angels and Airwaves, either. But I do own all the Ocs but Quince. Unfortunately. TwT

(/NOTE)

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I had to get the girliest possible keyblade..." Naminé trailed off. She was quickly taken aback by dodging a strong hit from Calypso. She never swung a keyblade in her life, but did get to experience it firsthand while inside of Kairi.

Naminé uncharacteristically grimaced and slashed back with her keyblade in an interesting backhand move. Surprisingly, she hit. While Calypso was knocked backwards by the hit, Axel threw a Chakram. Calypso caught the Chakram, and threw it back at him. He just managed to catch it before it hit his throat, and ran up to attack head-on.

Roxas had already received a few blows from Calypso, but was still going strong. It was much harder to fight now that he could feel every bit of pain that was getting at him, making him weaker as he fought on. The last time he remembered feeling pain was back at 'Twilight Town'.

Calypso didn't seem to be losing any energy at all, but Axel, Naminé, and Roxas were tiring. Axel, still just barely becoming a Somebody, felt the last bit of darkness in his hand. "Naminé!" he shouted, "Use that spell Charity did!"

"Light!" Naminé shouted out. The whole room was shrouded in light, blinding everybody. Naminé and Roxas only found themselves being dragged by Axel's hand through a portal, which was created by the last of his darkness.

"No!" Calypso shouted angrily, throwing her keyblade angrily to the floor. It disappeared, and her fists only clenched tighter in anger. Taking a few seconds to breathe, she began to pace around the room. She then noticed the circle table in which Naminé had created her memories out of; one of them had not been completed, which was probably why she hadn't remembered Charity's friends.

Standing in the center in the picture was Charity, and on one hand was Riku, the other, Nessa. Holding Nessa's hand was Quince, and holding Quince's was Broden. On the other side, Sora held Riku's hand, and Kairi held Sora's. A chain of their friendship; it certainly had grown since it was only Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

"There's a meaning to the order..." Calypso murmured to herself, picking up the drawing. The only thing incomplete about it was that Naminé never finished coloring in Charity's shirt, really. But the order definitely meant something... "Break the end of the chain..." she mumbled, ripping off the edge of the paper, "and it falls from the base."

Her lips curled into a smile.

"Calypso?" came Vexen. Calypso jumped, and turned around. Standing next to him was Larxene, and to the other side, Anton. So many blond/e/s in one area was actually quite a funny sight to see, but Calypso made no comment.

"Yes?" she said.

"It seems that the group has rested in Twilight Town for the night, but they're safe inside of other homes. Shouldn't we wait until—"

"Yes, yes," Calypso told him shakily, "wait until they get to the next world, and then Larxene can go. But I think I'll be going with Larxene."

"I can do this on my own." Larxene said, snidely.

"I won't be helping you destroy Charity," she said, "I have a more affective way of getting to the group. While I finish my task, sit back and watch. You may eliminate the girl after I've finished; I guarantee you that you will fail unless I do."

Larxene didn't like the sound of this, and she scowled.

"Anything I can help with?" asked Vexen.

Calypso picked up the piece of ripped-up paper, "What's the best way to distract this one?" she asked him, hoping he would even know who she was pointing to.

xxxxx

Blurry. Blink. Clearer. Blink again. Clear. She most definitely wasn't in Hollow Bastion anymore. It took a second, but realization finally hit her like a fluffy pillow to the head in a pillow fight; she was in Traverse Town, in her parents' house. Only her sister and herself were currently occupying it, however. Right next door was Nessa and Quince at Nessa's mom and uncle's house, and Kairi, Sora, and Broden were staying over at Gepetto's house.

Riku. He was lying right next to her. She was sleeping in her parents' room, so it was a queen-sized bed. She loved being able to sleep with Riku without doing anything; it meant that they both really cared about each other.

Charity jumped, however. She had no idea what time it was and they really should get to the next world. She shook Riku. The boy grunted, and breathed in once very deeply. Rubbing an eye, he looked up at Charity and smiled. "'Morning." he told her.

"G'morning." Charity smiled, "We should get going. I have no idea what time it is and we have to get to the next world."

Riku cocked his head to the side and nodded. It seemed like he had forgotten for a second that they were in Traverse Town as well. They tumbled out of bed and entered the living room. Amber was laying on the couch and watching television. "You guys going already?" she asked, standing up and stretching quietly.

"Yeah," Charity said, "the next Organization members could be coming soon and I don't want to trouble this world any more."

Amber nodded as if she understood and scratched her head. She hugged Charity good-bye, and gave Riku a kind of 'hurt-my-sister-and-die' glare.

Charity laughed a little bit, and looked at her watch. "Ten am. Yup, we definitely had to go." She made a little bit more haste into walking next door and ringing their doorbell. Apparently, Quince and Nessa had been awake for some time because they did not seem tired at all. With a long good-bye to her mom and uncle, Nessa left, promising to visit again.

"I'll come see you in a couple days." she nodded at her uncle as she hugged him. Quince smiled at the two adults.

"It was nice meeting you. I'll see you again in a couple days?" he asked.

Her mom nodded, "Of course. Be careful, Ness." she told her. They left the house. On their way to go retrieve Kairi, Sora, and Broden, they were very surprised to meet them half-way; apparently, they were on their way to do the same.

"Hey. How are you?" asked Nessa, unusually cheerful.

"I'm okay." Broden said, scratching his head furiously.

"I dunno." Kairi shrugged, "It's strange. Last night, I almost felt complete like Naminé was back with me, but when I tried to call her out or talk to her, there was nothing."

Sora jumped, "You too? I felt that way with Roxas."

Kairi sighed. "It can't be a coincidence."

Shaking his head, Sora both agreed and pushed them all along, "We should go to the next world. We're burning daylight, after all, and we've only got a few worlds left."

"Where are we going next?" asked Charity stylistically. She was so used to being the one asking this that nobody bothered asking anymore.

"Twilight Town, as long as we're so close."

Charity's heart melted on the spot. "We're going back!" she couldn't have been much happier since the night before, so a reunion with her friends was exactly what she needed.

They hopped in the Gummi Ship and got ready for another obligatory conversation inside of the Gummi Ship either making fun of Broden or the flower on Sora's face.

xxxxx

"Where did you send us?" asked Roxas.

"The Radiant Garden." replied Axel. It was almost funny how they called Hollow Bastion and the Radiant Garden separate worlds, when the truth was that all they considered the Radiant Garden was the castle that used to be ruled by Ansem the Wise. They really weren't separate at all, but somehow nobody dared to go there on anything but Gummi Ship. **Author's Note: And there's my explanation for always referring to the Radiant Garden as another world.**

"Why here?" asked Roxas, kicking a piece of snow, or what he thought was snow, "Why not Hollow Bastion?" he asked his friend.

Axel threw his hands up in mock surrender. "I wasn't thinking, okay? When some superfreak is about to kill me with a key I don't make it a note to tell myself 'Hollow Bastion Hollow Bastion Hollow Bastion'."

"Well, we're here now." Naminé smiled. "And we're Somebodies now."

"We are." Roxas smiled down at his own, real hands, and then looked up at the castle. "The committee's been working on it here, right? So it's Heartless-free?" he asked.

"Should be." Axel nodded. "But don't be surprised if we find Sephiroth." he laughed.

xxxxx

"You said it would only be a few days." a voice pierced into Charity's ear only seconds after they landed. She flipped around, and found Pence. Behind him was Hayner, Olette, and Odol. Charity laughed like and idiot and gave Pence a huge hug.

"I'm sorry!" she apologized, hugging one of her best friends, "We had no idea what we were getting into. There's so much to tell you guys."

Charity looked up at a smiling Hayner, and down at her own feet. "There is." murmured Nessa to herself. Before she could think any farther, Hayner had his arms wrapped around her stomach from behind.

"I missed you," he dragged on. Nessa couldn't help but to smile; she missed him so much the whole time too, "Didja miss me?"

"I did." she whispered to him, putting her hand on his, and kissed him on the cheek from the front, which was a pretty difficult task to accomplish while he was taller than her and behind her from that matter; she felt like a giraffe.

Quince, on the other hand, only smiled in disbelief.

"Perfect." Vexen whispered from far away. **Author's Note: Lots of sneaking going on in here, isn't there?**

"Quince..." Nessa looked at the boy apologetically.

The brunet shook his head slowly in disbelief. Turning around, he ran away from the group.

"Quince!" Nessa cried out.

"What's going on?" asked Hayner.

"Come with me and I'll tell you." Nessa held out her hand. Hayner stared at Nessa confused for a second, but nodded, and grabbed her hand. She led him towards the direction that Quince was running in, and Charity shook her head.

"Looks like she's finally going to confess. Just a little too late, I'm thinking." She looked at Riku, who was shaking his head at them.

"We should seal the keyhole while they deal with that." Sora said.

Charity shook her head, "I hope everything's alright."

"Where would the keyhole be?" asked Odol, shifting a little bit, "Do you need me to help out?" His keyblade appeared in his hand with a flash, which seemed to frighten Olette a little bit, as she backed up a couple of paces.

"It's probably on the gate to the mansion." Charity suggested.

"Let's go." Sora told them.

xxxxx

They neared a room that Roxas had remembered from Sora's memories, and Naminé through Kairi's very distant ones. Pushing the doors open, they found themselves in a very full library, with twists and turns of bookshelves with many differently colored books lining in almost the perfect order. Two voices were conversing between each other. They seemed oddly familiar, but at the same time, new and different.

"That's..." Axel looked back at the two, "You don't say anything until I tell you that you can. Got it memorized?" he asked them.

Roxas rolled his eyes, and the two of them nodded.

Axel led his way through the bookshelves, and stopped at a particular one to look past it. Sitting at a table, conversing, were two people, a woman about Axel's age and a man about his age as well. The woman had long, purple hair and pretty eyes, one of which was grey. The man had black eyes, one of which was grey as well, and brown hair. He oddly resembled Broden.

"Estelle and Parker." Axel addressed them as he stepped through. Reflexively, Estelle sat up and held out her hand, though no Keyblade came to greet her.

"I'm not here to fight." he whispered to her. She obviously had mistook him for somebody else, as she lowered her arms and took a step towards her. **Author's Note: If you didn't pick up my hints in the last fanfiction, go back and read it! I HINTED IT I TELL YOU. **"I've missed you." was all he said. He put his hand to her face, and she was shocked at what she felt; warmth. "I'm a Somebody now."

_I, I can do anything_

_If you want me here_

_And I can fix anything_

_If you'll let me near._

"Have they been seeing each other since our last journey?" asked Roxas.

Naminé nodded. "I've heard him saying things about her and leaving the house when we came back to help in Hollow Bastion while Quince was knocked out. He must have gone often." Naminé put her hand over her mouth, as she just realized that she apparently didn't 'have it memorized' not to talk until they told him to.

A small, unexpected tear appeared in Estelle's eye. She wrapped her arms around his stomach, and Axel did the same. Parker turned away, letting them have your moment. "You feel so warm." she told him happily. Estelle had most definitely reformed since the Keyblade War had ended; Roxas and Naminé had no doubt in this point of time that it was not the person that makes themselves crazy during the Keyblade Wars, it was the Keyblade.

"You are, too." he laughed to her.

She buried her face in his neck. "Where have you been for so long?"

"Somebody wants to destroy Charity to prevent destruction of the world, because they're technically the same person." Axel told her.

"Two of the same person on one planet can cause a disruption in the balance." she nodded. "We'll keep a look out for him. Who is he?"

"Her name's Calypso. She looks just like Charity, but she's wearing a silver cloak."

Estelle seemed embarrassed to have assumed that it was a he. "Okay. What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"Calypso tried to kill us off, but Naminé took our hearts that she had pre-made for us if we had destroyed Charity, and after we became Somebodies we tried to fight her, but instead I used the last of my darkness to bring us through a portal here. I just kinda missed Hollow Bastion by a little bit." He put his hand behind his head sheepishly.

"Just kinda?" she smiled and kissed him on the lips.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"Just learning more about the Heartless and Nobodies." she smiled. "As long as we were involved with them, we want to know everything about them."

xxxxx

"...Quince?!" Nessa shouted in a strangled voice. A girl that looked just like Charity was wearing a silver cloak and had Quince covered by the mouth, and her keyblade at his neck. His eyes were tearing up slightly.

"I don't want to do this," the girl smiled evilly, "but it's the only way to break off the first end of the chain, but you don't know what I mean when I say that, now, do you?" she asked.

"Let 'im go, what'd he do?" asked Hayner.

"Such strong words for such a weaponless boy." she laughed. Hayner whipped out a pathetic club. "Oh, right, you're the _boyfriend_, aren't you?" she asked, grinning only wider. Quince stopped stirring beneath her hand, and Nessa's hands curled into fists.

"What are you getting at?" asked Nessa angrily to the girl.

"And you, poor Quince..." she murmured, letting her hand trail to lift up his chin, "in a coma for two years and thinking she still loved you. And you come back to this? Did she ever even _tell_ you?"

_Where are those secrets now_

_that you're too scared to tell?_

_I'd whisper them all aloud_

_So you can hear yourself._

"I wanted to tell you!" she cried out to Quince, tears rolling down her eyes, reddening her pretty face as she screamed out to him. "I wanted to, but you were happy with me and I still feel happy with you!"

At this, Hayner backed away a little bit. Nessa looked back at him. "Hayner..." she mumbled.

"Ooh, now, nobody can be happy, can they?" asked Calypso.

"You stay out of this!" she shouted at her.

"She's right." Quince said shakily to Nessa. There was a silence between her screaming.

"What did I expect?" he asked. Something was rolling around in his gut. "Two years of being asleep, for you to wait for me? If I could have been in a coma for two years, I could have been in a coma for two decades, for forever."

"Quince..."

"You and Hayner," he looked over at the blond, "be happy. For me. If I could ask anything of you, Nessa, it's that you two are happy. Don't waste this love."

Nessa's eyes widened. Never had she heard Quince say such heartfelt words.

Such heartfelt last words.

Quince fell to the floor slowly as Calypso pulled out her keyblade from his back. This was it; falling, falling, falling. No more waking up, no more beautiful reunions two years from now of Nessa and Quince. He was gone.

"Quince!" she cried out, and ran up to him. Catching before he hit the ground like she had two years ago, she stared at his face. He was bleeding below her, staining her clothing. His eyes were closed peacefully, and his mouth was shut as well. Quince couldn't have died any more beautifully.

_I'm sorry I have to say it, but you look like you're sad._

_Your smile is gone. I've noticed it bad._

_The cure is if you let in just a little more love._

_I promise you this: A little's enough._

"You..." Hayner charged at the woman with his club, but he was too slow as she disappeared into a black portal in front of the mansion gate.

"Nessa? Hayner?" The group, after being stopped to explain everything to Pence, Odol, and Olette, had finally made it to the mansion gate. Just the sight of Quince bleeding rapidly in Nessa's arms, Nessa's sorry face, and Hayner's confused feelings one, they could only guess what happened.

"Nessa." Charity mumbled. "I'm so sorry."

"Fortunately," a girl's voice came out of the blue, and out stepped another black-coated Organization member. "I'm not." She flipped down her hood to reveal pretty eyes and short, blond hair that almost looked like she had antennae.

"You." Nessa growled, "I've had enough of all of you!" she shouted. She called upon her sword, and immediately charged at the nymph, hacking and slashing. She was joined in a desperate attempt by Hayner, and then by Charity.

"Honestly," Larxene told them, "I didn't expect to be attacked this early." She threw kunai out, and many of them hit Charity in the arm. She winced at the pain, but they thankfully didn't hit her keyblade arm.

xxxxx

"Are there any more here?" asked Axel to Estelle and Parker as he sat down with them. Naminé and Roxas, in the meantime, were just reading through a bunch of miscellaneous books.

Parker shook his head, "There was a family, but they just left for Traverse Town about ten minutes before you all came here."

Axel snorted, "None of Charity's group have come, right?" he asked.

"Not so long as we've been here." Estelle put her hands behind her back.

"I wonder which one will go." Axel though aloud.

"What?" asked Parker.

"Charity or Calypso. They're both a hella strong, but I don't know which one would make it." he told them honestly, as if he was thinking of the battle scene in his head. "Obviously they can't touch each other, but their keyblades still can, especially since she got rid of Destroyer of Balance."

Estelle nodded, "I think Charity will win, just because neither Parker nor I could defeat her when we were trying to." she smirked at her brother.

xxxxx

The nymph was tiring. She shook her head. "I'm not done." she growled, throwing more kunai. By this time, the group was ready for it. Charity whipped out her keyblade and reflected every single one back at Larxene.

Although some of them missed her, just a little taste of her own medicine was enough to put her into enough shock to fall on the ground. Nessa took her sword and stabbed right through her where her heart was supposed to be, if she had one.

Gagging, she obviously couldn't come up with any famous last words as she disappeared into the atmosphere through darkness deterioration. In the meantime, Sora sealed the keyhole and turned back around to the scene.

"So many casualties." he murmured, looking at Quince's dead body. He looked so peaceful.

**Author's Note: Aww, sad, right? I killed off Quince. Igor Lollipop's gonna hate me. Aheh. Well, makes life easier on Nessa anyway, or does it? Find out next chapter? I'm bad at this. XD Buhbai.**


	9. Play This Game Over Again

CHAPTER IX

Play This Game Over Again

(NOTE)

How eventful those last two chapters were, huh? So, don't think of that as a sign that the fanfiction will end soon; they still have to unlock a few worlds to make it to The World That Never Was. In fact, I think I'm going to introduce an OC this chapter. Stay... er... tuned!

**Charity: Seldom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts. I'll bet she wishes she did, though. She doesn't own it's plot, either, or even one of the OC's! How stupid!**

**Me: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whose side are you on?**

**Charity: Are you sure I can't go live with Igor Lollipop now?**

**Me:Sigh: I own my OC's and my plot.**

(/NOTE)

"Larxene's gone." Much to Vexen and Anton's surprise, Calypso was not angry. In fact, she seemed to be laughing inwardly, "I knew that fool could never take out my other half. Even though she's my weaker half as well."

Vexen looked around. He showed no expression as to what he was thinking, but it was probably something along the lines of 'damn, we're fucked', or, 'killing the rest of the Organization members was quite the idea, Sherlock.'

"Actually," Calypso said as if she read his mind, "I figured to give them a quick and easy ride back into the darkness, where Charity would have made it linger. If Larxene, one of our strongest Organization members couldn't destroy even Charity's little friend, then surely nobody in this room could do the same."

"What happens now?" asked Anton, his hands behind his head.

"We are, obviously, no longer an Organization. I have, however, managed to call in one more recruits. He is strong; very strong. This one might actually stand a chance against that strong-hearted girl." With a wave of her hand, the boy appeared on Demyx's chair..

Just his presence looked amazing. Messy black hair with purple and blue highlights donned his head. Although his face was angular, it somehow resembled that of a young child, although he was obviously late in his teens and experienced. He had a strong looking body, and he held two keyblades, one in each hand.

The keyblade in his left hand was a blood red down the arm with occasional swirls of dark purple that resembled the gravity attack spurting from it. The top of the keyblade was jagged, and almost looked like a rose stem with thorns jutting out from the side of it. Written down the arm were the words: "Balance, without her world, is nothing."

The keyblade in his right hand, however, was a beautiful mint green, with similar, yet softer swirls of purple running down the sides, but lighter. When it hit the top of the keyblade, it looked like a cartoon rendition of clouds, a light blue mixed in with the sea green. Along the arm were the words: "Balance; Without her, world is nothing."

Calypso grinned, "This wielder's name is Yasuyo. His Keyblades are similar to Savior of Balance in property, but not quite. They give the wielder the powers of a Nobody, and advanced magic. Besides that, Yasuyo himself is simply a very strong fighter. I challenged him to a duel before I asked him to come with us, and he nearly beat me. _Nearly_."

The boy simply smirked.

"With that, you may all retreat back. Charity and the others must still unlock at least three worlds before they can even dream of making it through the darkness here. We will let them alone for one world, and wait for the chain to hit the ground." At that, Vexen, Anton and Yasuyo made their way out of the room.

When Yasuyo stopped at his room, Anton stopped as well.

"You're on my side." Anton grinned at the boy.

Yasuyo smiled back. "You'll go back where you belong." he nodded at the boy. As he retreated for his room, Anton went to his as well.

xxxxx

"I understand. Don't worry." Hayner told his girlfriend as he held her hands in his. "You once felt things for him, and he didn't know that we were together when he woke up."

Nessa shook her head; she couldn't look him in the eyes. "But I still felt things for him. I still do." she told him regretfully.

"This may seem like I'm trying to make up answers to feel better about this, but honestly," Hayner started, "I think you felt an obligation to him."

Nessa nodded. "I think you're right."

"Now," Hayner smiled brightly. He wasn't used to being so mature and enthusiastic, "go back and find Charity's Heartless so you can restore your world. I've decided; if you do, when you do, I'm going there with you." He turned to look at Olette, Odol, and Pence's shocked faces, "You three, too, right?" he asked them.

"Unh?" asked Odol. He then looked back at where his house was, and nodded. "I'll bring my family, too!"

"No, no family." Hayner shook his head, "We're all going to start over there. Got it?" he asked them. Of course, Hayner being the unspoken leader of the group, got a bunch of nods and many enthusiastic words.

"That means a lot." Nessa wiped something from under her eye, "Thank you."

"Anything." Hayner kissed her on the cheek, and she bade him good-bye along with Charity as they made their way onto the Gummi Ship.

The ride was definitely quieter without Quince. Apparently, Sora had decided for the group that they weren't going to rest in Hollow Bastion, and they were going to go directly onto the next world, which was the familiar Beast's Castle.

The group only had too much of an experience in this castle, especially when Estelle, the leader of the Light wielders during the keyblade war, had switched Beast and Belle's personalities. She never switched them back.

"We're here," Sora groaned, stepping outside of the Gummi Ship, "I think the castle has gotten... pinker." Surrounding the castle were pink drapes and half of it was being painted pink at the very second by the paintbrushes themselves.

"Estelle... definitely didn't switch their personalities back." Charity decided aloud.

"Let's just go seal the keyhole." Riku shook his head, the brightness of the pink causing him to look down at his own feet.

"On second thought," Sora stuttered, "I'll go seal the keyhole. I know where it is, it will take me two minutes. You all stay here and... protect the Gummi Ship from pink Heartless."

Charity scowled, but sat down on the ground by the Gummi Ship as Sora rushed into the castle with Kingdom Key in hand. Riku and Nessa slid down next to her, and Kairi and Broden just leaned against the Gummi Ship.

xxxxx

Estelle and Parker had long since left to go to see the library in another world. Axel decided to stop asking why exactly they were researching it, because he knew Estelle's answer would be a bunch of bull. He sat down at the table, and looked at the other two.

"I think I liked being a Nobody better," he told them, "you could transport yourself wherever your nonexistent heart desires."

"We could always just take—!" Naminé was interrupted by a 'yoo-hoo' in their direction. Tifa stood at the door to the library and smiled at the three.

"You made it out of there!" she smiled at them.

"And we're Somebodies now." Roxas added, slapping himself on the hand unnecessarily and saying 'ow' to express the pain he was feeling.

"How'd you manage that?" she asked them.

Naminé shook her head, and put her hands together, "We'll tell you on the ride back to Hollow Bastion?" she suggested. Axel and Roxas nodded; no longer were they stuck on an island with no way of making it off.

As promised, on the ride there, Naminé explained everything to Tifa.

"Well, that was stupid," she mentioned, "making all of the hearts ahead of time. But it definitely seems like a Charity-like thing to do, so you did a good job at that, Naminé." Naminé supposed that she meant making her memories and abilities similar to Charity's.

"Even though Charity's tough and she'll be hard to fight," Axel brought up, "we've seen Charity battle, and if Calypso is similar in her battling ways, then she'll be predictable."

Roxas nodded. He had a point. Tifa landed the ship right back in front of Hollow Bastion. The first one to rush out of the house and greet the three was none other than Merlin.

"Oh... no." was all Roxas could muster out before Merlin grabbed his hands and started dancing along with him while singing a very inappropriate rendition of Simple and Clean. "Let... go!" Roxas told him, trying his best to pull his hands away.

Merlin let go on his own and stuck out his hands palm down, and screamed at the top of his lungs. Five seconds later, he began the macarina.

"Let's go inside... now..." Naminé urged Roxas, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him inside of the house. When Tifa made it in with Axel, they locked the door behind them, although they did not even hear Merlin try to enter the house.

"Axel?" asked Cloud, who was sitting on the couch. Leon walked in along with Aerith; they both seemed delighted to see him and Roxas.

"There's a lot to tell you." Axel told them.

xxxxx

"Leave it to this to happen the second Sora leaves." Charity complained. A giant, dragon Heartless appeared in front of them, and they all readied their weapons. Charity took a second glance at the dragon; it wasn't attacking. Why? "Wait!" Charity told Nessa.

"What?" Nessa asked, who had been charging to attack.

"It's Camel!" Charity said happily, walking up to the Heartless Dragon they had somehow managed to tame back at the Land of Dragons. She stroked its head, and it closed its sapphire eyes, making some strange purring noise.

"...Camel?" asked Broden, confused, dropping his gunblade.

"It's the dragon that brought us to see Estelle when we were in Land of Dragons, Nessa, Quince, and I." Charity told him. Nessa went up to the dragon and began patting it on the back.

"It's more of Charity's dragon, really, she was the first one to ride it." Nessa told them.

"You... tamed it?" asked Riku. He shook his head. "What's the Universe of Kingdom Hearts coming to?" surely the only friendly Heartless he had ever seen was a White Mushroom. This was probably a White Heartless.

"What's this?" asked Charity. Hanging half-way out of Camel's mouth was a letter signed in very curly handwriting. She took it gently from Camel and read it aloud:

Charity and Company,

I'm safe. You don't know me yet nor will you recognize me when you see me. I will have to fight at the risk of being exposed, but know that I'm a friend. I cannot sign my name as she might see this. Don't worry, she has no real accomplices anymore.

"What?" asked Charity almost immediately after writing the letter.

"Well, obviously Camel didn't write it." Broden proposed.

"No shit, Sherlock." Nessa rolled her eyes.

"Maybe it's someone who's working under Calypso." Riku suggested, who stood by his idea that Calypso was commanding Anton as well.

"It said that he or she's safe. So does that mean that the next... unrecognizable person we fight, we should just fight but know that they're safe? How does that make sense?" asked Nessa.

"Well, whoever it is, if they're on our side, it probably means that they wouldn't fight us to the death anyway, so we'd end up killing them or we'd end up leaving the fight at a stalemate. You're right, it doesn't make sense." Charity brought up.

"It's probably just a fair warning." Riku shrugged. Charity nodded, and stuck the paper in her pocket to look at later in case she needed to.

"What're we gonna do with Camel?" asked Nessa.

Charity shrugged, "We could take him back to Hollow Bastion."

"No, no, no," came Sora's voice. He had apparently been standing there for a good five minutes, "We're not taking a dragon back to Hollow Bastion. No way. Not safe." He looked over at Kairi, who had just been watching the whole time; apparently she had fallen in love with the dragon because she gave Sora the puppy eyes.

Sora grunted and said, "We'll take the Gummi Ship, you ride the dragon."

xxxxx

"Oh my, oh my!" Merlin cooed as Charity landed the dragon right in front of Merlin's house. He stopped mid-macarina just to go up and see the dragon.

"Dun touch Camel." Charity warned the crazy old man as he walked up to their dragon.

"What took you so long in there anyway?" Kairi asked Sora when they walked out of the Gummi Ship, "You said you'd take two minutes."

"I didn't realize that Beast was so dead set on making me a tea cozy for my _feet_. He had to take measurements..." Sora shivered at the very thought of it.

"There's enough room for you behind the house, I'm thinking." Charity cooed to the dragon, ignoring Merlin by any means possible as it followed her to the back of the house, "And you can fly around whenever you want, and we'll feed you when you're hungry... like the kitten I always wanted!" she smiled.

When they all walked in the house, they were certainly surprised to see Axel, Roxas, and Naminé all sitting at the couch, telling their story to the committee.

xxxxx

"A keychain that lets your keyblade multiply itself." Vexen said to Calypso, "Where did you come up with something like that?" he asked.

"It just came to me," she remarked, "although I can't find another use for it besides destroying the rest of the Organization." She mumbled something about 'operation: drop the deadweight.'

"Where did you find that boy? Yasuyo?" asked Vexen.

Calypso cocked her head to the side, "The Realm of Light, if that's what you're wondering. He came from a world called Jewel's Grove."

"So he wasn't in the Realm of Darkness." Vexen inquired. "Interesting. And yet he acquired two keyblades of balance that gives him powers of a Nobody? They certainly aren't what they seem."

"Are you suggesting something about his loyalty?" Calypso asked Vexen while she continued to write out statistics. She had been working on something that was so secret she refused to tell Anton, Vexen, or even her new Yasuyo.

xxxxx

"But I accidentally picked up a couple of Ansem's reports that Calypso had with her." Naminé remarked, pulling out a couple of sheets of paper she had folded up and put under the strap of her sundress.

"I knew that Anton would be working for Calypso." Riku murmured.

"What do they say?" asked Sora, taking the reports from Naminé, who really wished that her dress had pockets.

After scanning it for a few seconds, Sora read a portion aloud to the group, "A certain keyblade can separate the Nobody from the Heartless in a rare case that they combine after leaving their original Somebody, and this keyblade is the Ultima Weapon, a very rare keychain-based blade... That's it!" Sora shouted. He handed the report back to Naminé, and ran out of the room and into his down the hallway.

"So the Ultima Weapon can separate them! But we can't do that until we get her to restore Azure Daybreak." Charity nodded.

"How long has Sora had that keychain without using it?" asked Riku.

"ABRACABRA DABRA DACK!" shouted Merlin angrily as he stomped through the house.

"On second thought... let's... skip that night off." Roxas decided.

**Author's Note: That was a bit uneventful, I realize, but it makes up for the last two chapters that were kind of mind-blowing. Just a few more chapters to go! See you next.**


	10. I Hope this Message Finds You Well

CHAPTER X

I Hope This Message Finds You Well

(NOTE)

Ah, the last few chapters are here. This one won't be very big, but it certainly will reveal a lot as far as the plot goes and where the characters are going from here on in, and maybe a little more about Yasuyo as well.

Enjoy!

(/NOTE)

"It's done." Calypso whispered to herself as she stared at her own magnificent creation. This is what it all was for; to get the life that she should have had that Charity did, and this was the first step to getting the life that she wanted, no, deserved. Placing the object in a drawer, surprised something so important could be so small, she stood up from her desk, surprised to see Vexen standing right behind her, his arms crossed.

"What is it?" she asked, a bit upset at the intrusion.

"Charity and the others arrived at the second to last world they need to destroy the darkness around The World that Never Was. Don't you think it would be wise to send Yasuyo in right about now?" Charity had looked up papers on Vexen. Surely, his temper had dropped and he was much more precise about his science. But was he accurate?

Taking the risk, Charity nodded. "Send him in. Where's their final destination?" she asked him.

"It's hard to be sure," he shook his head, "right now they are in a world called Jewel's Grove. Their final destination should be Destiny Islands." **Author's Note: I do not own Jewel's Grove, Quince's hometown. This world, along with Quince and the newest Ocs to be introduced only for this chapter, belong to Igor Lollipop and her fanfiction, which I really suggest reading; the first one is The Two-Sided Heart, then read the sequel and the one she's working on. Huge recommendation.**

"Jewels Grove?" asked Charity. She closed her eyes; why did that sound familiar? "A couple people have come from there."

Vexen nodded. "I'll let him be on his way."

xxxxx

"It's so beautiful here." Charity admitted, breathing in a huge breath of air. This world; Jewel's Grove, reminded her so much of Azure Daybreak that it made her upset; a beautiful, suburban home. Even the park they were currently standing across from looked familiar.

"Keyblade Wielders..." a girl's voice came from down the street. They all turned, to find three figures standing down the other side of the street. One of them was a girl with long, blond hair and black streaks in it, with some other odd colors mixed in. She was wearing intricate yet simple clothing, and looked a bit like Nessa in the face, but not quite enough. Much to the groups surprise, she was holding a Keyblade.

The other girl had medium-length brown hair and chocolate eyes. She was holding a long, blue and white staff with a crescent moon shape on the end. Her simple presence seemed so strong in magic that it almost reminded Sora of Donald. She wore a simple black t-shirt with a yellow undershirt that bared a hood in the back, and blue jeans.

The boy, however, had short, dark brown hair and brown-green eyes. He had a baby face, although much taller than the other two. The boy was wearing just a simple t-shirt and jeans. **Author's Note: These are the characters that come from Igor's fanfiction. Since characters cross, I'm simply using these characters, nothing to do with the storyline in her fanfiction; or else things would be really screwed up. Heh.**

"Who are you?" asked the blond girl, pointing her keyblade farther out. These people couldn't have been any older than them. Why did they seem so threatening.

"Your world's keyhole is unsealed." was all Charity said as she walked closer up to the girl. Mirroring her, the girl did the same, and they met face-to-face.

A look of pure confusion spread across the girl's face, "How can that be? We just restored this world." After that, she looked down, "Well, it happens, I guess." She glanced up from her overgrown bangs, "Where are you from?"

"A world called Azure Daybreak." Nessa replied to the girl. Getting a look of wariness, she clarified, "It's in the light realm. I'm Nessa, this is Charity, and these are Riku, Sora, Kairi, Broden, Naminé and Roxas." That was a mouthful. She had forgotten that there were so many people with them again.

The girl relaxed; she seemed to think that if they didn't care enough to give her their names that they couldn't be dangerous. "I'm Stefa, this is Nalani," she said, pointing to the girl, "and that's Ceron. You need to know where our keyhole is?"

"Hm." Nalani scowled a little bit. She obviously didn't like the look of Charity and the others. "She looks too much like me." Nalani complained to her friend. Charity couldn't help but to laugh at this; they had a similar personality as well.

"The keyhole," Ceron started, "is on this weird heart painting thing by her house. We'll take you, it's about a half an hour's walk."

"Mm." Charity nodded, "Thanks."

And with that, the group started leading them out of the subdivision. They talked here and there, but not all that much. They rounded the corner to go down a sidewalk close to a busy street; certainly the opposite of Azure Daybreak at that point. It seemed almost like a normal neighborhood.

Suddenly, everything stopped around them. The only one moving was Charity; everyone around her, the cars, the trees in mid-blow were completely stiff. "It's a Nobody..." Charity murmured after getting over the shock.

"Not quite." came a voice. Appearing on the scene was an odd looking boy; he could have almost been normal had he not been holding a keyblade. One hand was on his hip as he looked over at Charity. Completely ignoring her while she readied her keyblade, he simply walked up to her.

"Do you remember what you... found?" he asked her, sticking out his Keyblade. Charity responded only by holding out Savior of Balance.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "I've had too long of a journey to deal with pathetic little cryptic messages. Fight me!" she shouted, attacking the boy with her keyblade.

Hit.

How did the keyblade hit immediately? Wasn't he a Nobody; how else did he make everything else, time, freeze around him?

"Have it your way, Charity." he responded. He certainly was a good fighter; less than five minutes into the battle, she was on her knees, gasping for breath. She had no physical injuries as she used potions like she changed clothes.

"Why did you stop time to do this?" she asked. Although, this question would suggest that she needed her friends to help her in a fight, which she didn't exactly enjoy admitting.

The boy raised his eyebrow. "So Calypso doesn't know that this ever happened. Because she's a Somebody now, she may have the powers of a Nobody, but not the senses."

Charity cocked her head to the side and managed to stand up. She lowered her keyblade and gave the boy a quizzical look.

"Words, although, can be repeated." he responded. As he approached her, Charity debated on whether or not she should back up; she didn't want to deal with fighting anybody so strong like that again. "Hold out your hand."

Regrettably, she held out her hand. The boy placed a neatly folded piece of paper in it, and closed the hand himself.

"What?" she asked.

Before she could ask any more, he put one finger to her lips, shushing her. "I can't stay here any longer. It will be obvious."

Before Charity could even figure out what was going on, everyone around her began moving again. Nessa walked into Charity, and ended up pushing her forward.

"Ow..." Nessa complained.

"S-sorry." Charity responded.

"What's wrong?" asked Nessa. Everyone stopped with them to listen, and Charity told them exactly what happened. At first, nobody believed her, but she showed them the note that he had given her. It read:

Charity,

You musn't under any circumstances let Calypso get to you. You have two more worlds that you need to seal, and then the darkness will be gone enough for you to go to The World that Never Was. I cannot write too much in fear of Calypso seeing this before I'm sent to go get you; but he is not your enemy. I repeat, he is not your enemy. Send him back to the darkness. Defeat Vexen, separate Calypso. I will be waiting at The Radiant Garden.

—Yatsuyo.

"Yatsuyo?" asked Stefa.

"We don't even know a Yatsuyo." Riku shook his head.

"We can't be worried about that right now, first we have to seal the keyhole." Charity decided, folding the note back up and sticking it in her pocket.

xxxxx

"Yatsuyo still isn't back." Vexen reminded Calypso.

"That's a good thing." Calypso started, "It means that he's destroying her as we speak." she smiled into nothing.

"Hm." Vexen only started, "You know that if they make it through this the first thing they're doing is coming this way; to The World That Never Was, and straight to your office."

When Calypso didn't answer, Vexen only elaborated, "And you have no Organization members to stop them from getting here but me."

"Do you want to join them?" hissed Calypso. Vexen dropped the idea; he knew Calypso when she had a temper.

"What do you plan to do in case they make it?" he asked her.

"I'll be in the place they least expect me to." she concluded, "because I have an idea that will force them to go through this last bit of darkness that will eat away at them just by trying to get here while I go finish preparations for something much greater."

"That something you still won't tell me about." Vexen raised an eyebrow.

"That exact something." Calypso stood up and faced her wall-sized radar. Staring at an empty place where a world should be, and not too far away, Destiny Islands. Darkness began to seep through her clenched fists. "Getting rid of the last visible world from sight will only force them through the last bit of darkness in the World that Never Was."

xxxxx

"You trained under Donald?" Sora asked Nalani in amazement.

Nalani nodded; "Donald from Disney Castle. He taught me everything there is to know about magic." she nodded.

"I wish I had Donald as a mentor. I had to learn from Merlin. Thankfully, he wasn't that crazy back then." he concluded with.

"I can teach you some spells that Donald taught me sometime." she told him.

Sora smiled, "That'd be great!"

"What a story," Charity said in amazement after hearing a shortened version of what Stefa had gone through, "Your world disappeared, too? That's what happened to Azure Daybreak."

"Your world was gone?" asked Stefa. "How?"

Everyone seemed to be getting along with these three just fine; it was almost too bad that chances were that they weren't going to see them ever again.

"Here we are." Ceron stopped at a tree in front of a set of duplexes.

Painted on the tree was one, purple heart that looked like it could have been painted by a three year old or a fast painting by a teenager; one that you could never tell who exactly had done it. Charity ran her hand down the bark.

"So familiar, and yet..." she sighed, and pulled out Savior of Balance.

Nalani seemed shocked at the sight of this. "This was the first keyblade to ever perform the light magic!" she said in awe.

Charity blushed, "It was nothing, really." Locking up the tree, they could feel the world secure beneath them. It had sure been an easy going day; all except for Yatsuyo. Charity couldn't get it out of her mind; who was this enigmatic boy? Why was he staying at Radiant Garden, and why was he on her side if he had been working for Calypso? But who exactly was he talking about in his letter when it said 'he is not your enemy'.

"Charity," Riku snapped her out of it, "we should go now. We have to get to Destiny Islands and seal the keyhole there."

Charity's heart dropped into her stomach; she completely forgot that they only had one more world to go before the darkness had completely disappeared from around The World that Never Was.

Roxas looked over at the group of two, "You know, maybe we'll see you again." he always acted quite odd about leaving friends, even just new ones. He knew what it was like to have friends for a long time and lose them so suddenly, as did Sada.

"Sure." Stefa smiled. They all bade them good-bye as they walked back to their Gummi Ship.

"Somehow," Sora said as he settled in the cockpit of the Gummi Ship, "I think we will see them again. Maybe someday."

**Author's Note: Really short chapter, I know, I'm sorry, but I want to move things along. The next one will be short, too, but the two after that I promise will be a little more lengthy. If there are two, I'm still between what I want to do. See you next chapter. :DDDD**


	11. Hold On, Hold On To Me

CHAPTER XI

Hold On, Hold On To Me

(NOTE)

Again, this might be a shorter chapter, but twelve and on will be back to normal length. I suppose I could have put ten and eleven together to make a normal sized chapter, but this way I get more chapters in. Heh. Don't hate me.

(/NOTE)

"They were nice, I think." Naminé mentioned sweetly as she attempted with all her might to sketch while the Gummi Ship was still in motion. Sora wasn't all that smooth of a driver yet; he always blamed the road bumps which really don't exist in space.

"That one girl liked my keyblade." Charity smiled proudly.

Broden laughed. "Doesn't mean she liked you."

"Shut up, I bet you wanted her to like you." Charity smirked.

Broden shook his head. "No, the only one for me is my dear Exie." he seemed to float on nothing, and Charity couldn't help but to snicker.

"To ruin your hopes and dreams, she's gonna be returning to my body soon. And just for that comment, I think I'll remind Roxas of your first ever encounter with him."

At this, Broden gulped. He was, after all, just trying to freak the group out when he made sexual advances towards Roxas. Roxas, however, grimaced, and held out both Oathkeeper and Oblivion where he sat.

"Heh. That's... not necessary." he waved his hands in the air as if nothing was wrong.

"Okay, let's not tip the Gummi Ship with all this." Kairi suggested to them.

"I swear this is the longest ride ever." Nessa complained as she lied down on the seat. "I want Hayner here." she complained.

"I thought you'd want Quince here." Broden said airily.

Before he knew it, he was slapped in the face.

"Don't talk about him like that, he was a braver fighter than you'll ever be, stronger, too. You don't have the right." Really, she just didn't want to be reminded of him so soon after his death.

Broden snorted, and looked back over at Charity, who was just giving him a face. Turning away from Broden, she set her sights on a slightly gentler face as she rested her head on Riku's shoulder. It seemed almost like a puzzle piece for her head nowadays at how tired she was constantly becoming.

"We're almost at Destiny... oh... wow."

xxxxx

"All set up." Calypso said smugly to Vexen, pulling her creation out of her drawer, and stuffing it in her silver cloak pocket.

"And what do I do?" he asked her.

"Anton will be rid of the group before they even make it up here, but in case they do, you have to destroy them. It's a false trap, of course." she smiled. She was still inwardly angry from the news that Anton had to deliver about Yatsuyo's death; just when she thought that she had found a warrior that could destroy Charity. But she still had Anton, her weapon.

"And you go recline at a spa?" he asked her.

"Spa? Quite the opposite." she hissed back at him.

"You." the taller man said, starting towards Charity, "You destroyed every member of the Organization because you thought that they weren't good enough fighters. You leave somebody that you had given a heart to die at the hands of one of the strongest keyblade wielders to ever exist because you're so deadset on destroying this girl and living a life of your own instead of settling on a life with her. You have had the ability to create hearts this whole time, and I have only been your most loyal companion, and not out of fear but out of—!"

"Greed!" Charity blasted right back at him. He stumbled backwards. "You're doing all this just so I can give you a heart. You tell me what a horrible person I am for feeling betrayed by all of those members when you don't even know what it is to feel. But that's what you want, isn't it?" she asked, screwing up her face in anger, "You just want to feel. You don't help me out of loyalty, you help me out of your own greed and the hope that it will earn you a heart."

"I deserve that heart more than Roxas, Axel, or Naminé did combined!" he shouted.

"I didn't _give_ those to those traitors!" Calypso retaliated.

"They got them nevertheless!"

"Shut _UP!_" Calypso cried to him, pointing Moonlight Radiance right at his face. He stood in utter shock; how much Calypso sounded just like him right now was scaring him; she certainly was taking on his way of thinking, which was not always the best idea.

"You're becoming..."

"More like you."

The two looked at each other, eyes locked in a spiritual stalemate between which one was wrong of the two of them.

Calypso held out her separate hand. A heart flashed in it in a second. A beautiful, shining heart. She threw it at Vexen, who caught it quickly.

"If she's as strong as you say she is," Calypso murmured, lowering Moonlight Radiance until it disappeared in her hands, "then she will just have to be rid of you as a Somebody, and you can't come back from the darkness at all."

This was the last straw. Vexen crushed the heart in his fist and replied, "If I go down, I'm going down the same way that I came here; as a Nobody. This way, if I ever come back I'll have another chance at destroying you."

"Somehow," Calypso started, and disappeared to her location. The rest of her sentence echoed in the room as if she was still there. "I highly doubt it."

Vexen pulled out his shield; the last thing he really wanted to do right now was sit around and wait for a group to show up. Then again, that was exactly what the blond boy, what was his name? Anton. That was exactly what Anton was doing at a lower level of the mansion. Just waiting to go destroy that group. But why wasn't he more direct?

Did he have something he needed to settle with them?

Or did they have something that they needed to settle with him?

It was all too confusing. To pass the time, Vexen sat down in Calypso's chair, and began reading some of her reports. It's not like she would ever be back anyway; she could never show her face to them after that huge round.

"Azure Daybreak..." he muttered as he read the reports aloud.

xxxxx

"It's gone?" asked Charity. She ran up to the cockpit, followed closely behind by Nessa. Sure enough, where they were floating in the random space of Kingdom Hearts, Destiny Islands was shrouded in the same black mist that used to be so heavy around The World that Never Was.

"Calypso must have done this." Nessa decided.

"What're we gonna do?" asked Sora, putting his hand to his chin to think.

Charity looked out the main window, "How bad is the darkness around The World that Never Was?" she asked.

"Pretty much gone," Sora told her, "but still enough to corrupt anybody that wanted to go through it. It must all be damage from the Keyblade War. I knew that whole thing should have never happened, but there've been so many..."

"Gimme that." Charity decided, practically pushing Sora out of his seat. Standing by his moral ethics not to push girls around, he scowled from out of the seat. Charity took the controls, and Sora immediately became frightened.

"Oh no. Oh, no, no, no. What are you doing with that?" he asked warily.

"We're going through The World that Never Was."

"Are you crazy?" came Roxas from farther inside of the vessel. He pushed his way to the front, and Nessa sat back down with an angry glare on her face. "Some of us that have already been in the darkness once could go back."

"I doubt it," Charity said, who didn't seem to be as preoccupied as the rest of them were, "the first cut is the deepest, after all." She took a sharp turn, and almost everybody slammed into the person next to them on the seats in the center of the Gummi Ship. "If anybody gets lost in the darkness, we go and find them before moving on. But getting through right now is the most important thing because once we're through, we won't have to try again. All for one and one for all, right?" she asked. She slowed the Gummi Ship down simply to look back at everyone.

Sora nodded. "That's what we decided."

Roxas seemed to have similar views.

Naminé, on the other hand, seemed a little worried. "Charity," she said, putting her hands together and walking up to the keyblade wielder, "we all know what it's like to have been in the darkness, us Nobodies. It's different when you live in the dark realm and reside there; the darkness is easier to get through. After you've left it and made an oath to leave it, whether or not you still embrace it, that darkness could be strong enough to break somebody's heart."

"That's true." came Axel's voice from inside the Gummi Ship.

"Axel?!" asked Charity, confused as she looked farther back into the ship. Surely enough, Axel popped out from underneath a seat.

"I was going to keep my presence here unknown until we got to the next world, but you gotta hear this. It's dangerous going through the darkness. Like Naminé said. Got it memorized?" he asked the new driver.

Charity looked up; somehow Naminé's explanation was more enticing. Still, she looked at everybody behind her, "The whole idea of all for one and one for all is to be altruistic. That means giving up yourself to help those around you. We're all risking something by going into the darkness. Riku could be sucked in for the fourth time, you all could lose your hearts, and we could go for the first time, the deepest cut. But the only reason that I'm risking this is because there's always a way out. We've figured this out, through all of the years we've known each other and grown together; there's always a way to the light."

Naminé first, sat shocked at this, but then she nodded at Charity. "That's true. You're right. I'm in this." She felt quite odd to say something so... Sora-ish. She put her hand in the center like they had done only days before.

"All for one and one for all." Charity spun around in her seat and put her hand in the center.

Everyone repeated this, including Nessa, who was a bit hasty, "Great, Charity, could you grab the controls now?" she practically begged her friend, "We've been sitting here stationary blowing up ship after ship waiting for you to move."

"Crap!" Charity exclaimed, picking up the controls. Although shaky, maybe Sora was just the tiniest bit safer on the road. Charity was fine at driving back at Twilight Town, but a Gummi Ship was a whole new deal. It wasn't just forward, sides, and reverse; it was up and down you had to worry about as well. She nervously maneuvered her way through.

"Turn right," Sora told her, "left... forward a little longer..."

After a while, they finally made it to The World That Never Was. It surely did look different with the small bit of darkness that was surrounding it, but still, with all of her might, Charity drove the ship full speed through the atmosphere.

_Static! Glitter! Crash!_

xxxxx

"Nn?" Charity rubbed her head. Her vision was swimming; as she pulled her hand back, she felt warm, sticky blood. Thankfully, it was just her hand that was bleeding, and not her head. Pushing herself off of the cold, hard ground, she asked herself where she was.

Wait.

Cold, hard ground.

Using her other hand, she rubbed her eyes free of all sleep that she might have gone through while lying unconscious on the ground.

It looked like a city. She smelled the air. "Definitely The World That Never Was." Charity only said this because the world had no scent. Glance to the left, glance to the right. "Nobody's here?" she asked, worriedly.

Surely, not all of them could have gone in the darkness without her.

"That can't be it." she decided. "I was probably just separated from them when we crashed. I'll just look for the destroyed Gummi Ship," she said, a bit too cheerfully, "and they should be there. Right?" she wasn't sure who she was asking. Under normal circumstances, Exie would have given her a witty combat, logical answer, or some combination of the two. But lately, it seemed as though 'normal circumstances' were her over with Calypso.

Sometimes Charity couldn't help but to think that maybe Calypso wasn't the dominant one between the two of them. What if they were co-dominant? What if Exie provoked some of these feelings in the new Somebody?

She shook her head as she tried to walk; what a strange thing to think about. Her Exie? Maybe at one point, but how again? Then again, The World that Never Was might have brought back some feelings for that.

"I can't think of that right now." Before Charity knew it, she found herself surrounded by at least twenty Dusks in the area that she stood. "What the...?" she asked herself. After all, Nobodies only came when they were bade to. She forgot that she still had Vexen from the Organization to deal with, as Larxene had gotten herself destroyed at the hands of Nessa.

"What's going on?!" Charity finally got herself to shout.

"Charity." That voice. So familiar, but so distance.

"Who is it?!" she asked, looking around. No sight.

"Calypso would get suspicious and kill innocent people on the spot if she found out that I went down without a fight." Through a black portal, a strawberry blond boy whose hair was flat in the front but spiky in back stood in front of her. He was wearing basic clothes, and surely Anton had gotten much taller since the last time they met that he was presumed dead.

Charity growled, "If I have to fight you, I will. Nessa killed you once."

"Technically." Anton muttered. "Didn't you get Yatsuyo's note?"

"What does this have to do with any—..." Charity gasped. The part of the note that read: _He is not your enemy_ rang in her head.

"I know what you're thinking." he half-smiled at his cousin's best friend. "You know where I want to go. So make this last battle count, okay?" his half-smile turned full.

Charity grinned as well, whipping out Savior of Balance.

xxxxx

"I knew it!" Nessa complained, "I knew from the start it was a bad idea to come through that darkness." she muttered. She and everyone else except Charity were standing by their broken-down Gummi Ship, with minor injuries.

"That's ironic." Broden muttered, "The one that seemed so positive that nobody would get hurt and had to go all 'altruistic' on our asses was the one that got lost to the darkness."

"Don't say things like that!" Kairi told Broden. He was certainly getting on Kairi's nerves, but had been from the second that he joined the restoration committee.

"_I _don't think she's in the darkness." Nessa said quietly, for once not allowing her temper to get the better of her, "Let's face it. If Charity were here right now, she'd want us to go on and find Calypso. Besides, Sora's the one with Ultima Weapon."

Sora's eyes widened. "That's right!" He fumbled through his pockets to pull out the Ultima Weapon keychain, and stuck it at the end of Kingdom Key. Before he knew it, the beautiful, silvery, ultimate keyblade shone in his very own hands. It seemed so delicate to the touch, but so strong to the senses that Sora just wanted to destroy Heartless on the spot.

"Let's go, then!" Naminé suggested to all of them. After she had tried to talk Charity out of going to the world, she decided it was best if she stayed optimistic for all of them while Charity was back in wherever she was.

"Sure." Roxas smiled at her.

"I wonder if we've still got those tacos in the fridge..." Axel mumbled, obviously thinking of their headquarters in The World That Never Was.

xxxxx

No wonder Riku had been so strong; the darkness must have been some kind of ecstasy; it did things to you. Anton used to be very strong, but now he seemed downright unbeatable. Both of them, though, found each other to be equally challenging.

Taking the final stab with her keyblade, Anton fell backwards. Charity walked up to the boy, and looked down at him from above.

"It's not over." As if he had completely regained his strength, he shot back up and began fighting again. How much longer could Charity last before she found herself unable to go on?

**Author's Note: Short, again. But I have big promises for the next one! This fanfiction, I have decided, will be thirteen technical chapters long, and then the epilogue, making it fourteen. Besides the credits, there will be an extra chapter stuck in there at the end, but you'll just have to guess exactly what I'm planning for that. See you next chapterrrr!**


	12. Poisoned Hearts will Never Change

CHAPTER XII

Poisoned Hearts will Never Change

(NOTE)

Second to last technical chapter! So it's getting down to the wire, and I'm writing this right now because there's no way in hell I'm getting to sleep right now. XDD I hope you like it, I promised it to be longer than the others, and I hope I stick to that promise; Heh; I'll try my best! Mmhm. So here it is, chapter twelve!

(/NOTE)

The truth was, she couldn't decide at that moment whether she hated Calypso or not. As she lie on the ground, all she could think of was how similar they really were. The people around Calypso went through pain for what she thought was a good cause. It sounded familiar enough. Although Calypso wanted to kill Charity, it was only so she could live a functional life of her own. She had a reason behind everything she did, which was what angered Charity the most.

"This is the last time I'm getting up." she warned Anton. It was almost scary how strong he had gotten in the period of three years. Her right leg was gashing so badly with blood that she had some kind of idea that she would either die from loss of said blood or from shock if it ever healed up. Charity soon became afraid to put her hand near the gash.

"I hope." he replied. As he charged at her with his keyblade that resembled a setting sun, Charity pointed hers out straight towards him.

"Gravira!" she shouted as loudly and forcefully as she possibly could.

Darkness.

Embrace it?

It was so close to the real thing. Anton waited for Charity to try again.

Sure enough, Charity tried another Gravira.

He was falling, falling, falling into darkness. Smiling at Charity before he left, he uttered two words that were so simple but Charity just couldn't understand through all of the moments she spent thinking about it: "Thank you."

Everything was black. She could feel herself lying on the pavement, but at the same time, she couldn't get herself to wake up. All that Charity once thought balance was about; one outdoing the other, dark and light, everyone born equal, seemed so wrong. The truth was, not everybody was born equal. You didn't see everyone running around with a keyblade. The lucky ones were at home with no idea that Heartless, Nobodies, Organization XIII, Kingdom Hearts, any of that even existed.

Yeah.

They were the lucky ones.

Her hand trailed down her keyblade to the keychain; the keychain was the only thing keeping that keyblade what it was. What would it become if she were to take away the keyblade? This wasn't the last battle. Calypso was around the corner. She couldn't think of this right now; she just needed sleep. They would find her, in or out of the darkness.

xxxxx

"We're almost there." Naminé said cheerfully to everybody, especially the groaning Broden who seemed like he'd rather be doing something manly like watching football and burping at the same time. How very manly that all seemed.

"What's that?" asked Roxas, pointing forwards at some pile on the smooth pavement at least a half of a block ahead of them. All of the buildings seemed to be thinning out; did they really make it this much more like a city since the last time that Roxas had traveled there on his own?

They approached the heap slower.

It seemed kind of familiar.

"It's Charity!" Nessa said, genuinely shocked. She ran up to the girl on the ground, and lifted her head from behind with her hand. Riku was the next one over, kneeling and clenching onto her hand tightly, hoping for her to wake up.

"Is she dead?" asked Broden.

"No, she's not dead!" Kairi scowled.

"She's got a pulse." Riku said, checking her wrist with his fingers.

"Wake up." Nessa commanded the, seemingly unconscious Charity. A strange expression came across Charity's face that Nessa couldn't exactly read.

"I've been awake. I've just been thinking. I fought Anton... he went back into the darkness. But he thanked me. Why'd he thank me...?" she asked nobody in particular. Riku shook his head, and put a hand on her waist as he lifted her up.

"Obviously that fight took a lot out of you." Nessa told her friend, "It's okay, we can go on without you. Stay here and rest."

"No!" she heard Charity shout even through a voice that sounded drunken. She opened her silvery-clouded eyes, still the same as Calypso's, and looked over at the two of them. "All for one and one for all. One goes down we all go down, I won't let that happen." She let Savior of Balance reappear in her hand, and stood herself upright.

"Yeah, but it's different when your injured, isn't it?" asked Sora, putting his hands on his hips.

Charity shook her head. "Calypso's somewhere up there miles from here. We can't just portal there because none of you are Nobodies anymore, so I'm going to walk the whole way there with all of you and hopefully fight just like I usually do."

Riku felt for the important item in his pocket, but nodded at Calypso. "Not yet." he mumbled to himself, but only loud enough for himself to hear.

"But you're taking it easy." Nessa decided for Charity, unwilling to hear anything else from her. They continued on their way down the road.

xxxxx

"I wonder how they're doing." Leon mumbled into his own hands, which were folded to hold up his head. "They haven't needed us almost this whole time. I'm starting to think that they're a little overconfident in their abilities."

Aerith took a seat next to him. "So you're unconfident?" she asked him, as sternly as someone like her could ever seem to manage.

"It's not that I'm not confident in them. I hold all the confidence in the world for those kids. But they remind me of back at the..." he couldn't get himself to mutter out the rest of the sentence. Aerith shook her head and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"But you came back." she smiled. "Charity brought Riku back from his last disaster, just like Rinoa brought you back."

"In a way," he lifted his head from his hands, "it is sort of like I was lost in my own darkness, isn't it?" he asked her, earning a nod. "So why am I so worried?"

Aerith laughed lightly, "Because Charity's like a daughter to you."

Leon smiled. "She is." He didn't even have to tell himself that it was only since Leander died; the truth was that even before Leander's, quite sudden, death, they had already bonded because they were always up earlier than anybody else.

"Speaking of darkness..." he said aloud, staring outside of the house. Camel was acting up; which was odd, because he was usually very quiet. Leon darted outside, followed closely by the curious Aerith.

"We're finishing this here!" the familiar Cloud screamed to someone that Leon had only heard about a trillion times; Sephiroth.

"Fool." The one-winged angel muttered, rushing in for an attack.

xxxxx

"The Nobodies are flooding this place!" Charity complained, destroying as many as possible. Most of the stronger Nobodies were left to the members with the most stamina at the time, which happened to be Sora, Riku, and Broden.

"That's because Vexen's weak." Sora clenched his fists. He remembered when Naminé had given him back the memories of Castle Oblivion. Vexen certainly had not been the strongest Organization member he ever had to fight, but he used resources more than wisely.

"It's Calypso we'll have to worry about." Riku called back, stabbing an Assassin straight in the middle, sending it into nothing.

"Calypso, eh?" asked Broden, "If she fights anything like Charity, I wouldn't be too scared." He laughed a little bit, before he received a keyblade hilt to the gut from Charity herself.

"Oops." she said airily.

"The Castle that Never Was." Riku unintentionally broke up the quarrel.

"Already?" Sora asked nobody in particular, walking up to the door, "Finally, we're done with the Dark City..." Nobody seemed to enjoy that place.

"It's gotten worse here." Charity admitted as they walked into the castle. "I think it was all the time it spent shrouded in darkness. The Heartless count was even up, and not to mention the crazy amount of Nobodies Vexen found it... appropriate... to summon."

"It could've been Calypso." Sora reminded her, "Don't forget that she's half of your Nobody." He kicked a random area of the ground. It was all the more surprising that there were hardly any Nobodies in the castle.

"Nevertheless," started Charity, "whoever's bringing in the Nobodies could have managed them better. They probably wasted them all outside of the castle so they can't protect themselves in here." She only grimaced, staring on the inside of the castle that seemed way too empty.

"Don't start wishing for them to send more in here, though," Sora told her, "I kind of like a few moments of peace."

The idea of 'Moments of Peace' was disturbed the second they walked into The Proof of Existence. Expecting to have to defeat members of the 'Organization', Sora had readied his keyblade immediately, but found himself faced only with Vexen. The scholar smirked at all of them.

"Where's Calypso?" Charity shouted over to Vexen, "We have no business with you, I need to see Calypso."

Vexen only laughed and pulled out his large, icy shield. "She's not here. She hasn't been here for a long time."

Charity practically dropped to her knees just seconds after hearing this. "So... we came here for...?"

"Nothing?" asked Vexen, and laughed slightly at seemingly the simple thought, "Not at all. Even without a heart for a reward, I'm going to prove to Calypso that I'm strong enough to defeat the precious Savior of Balance."

"_Precious_?" Charity hissed. Her knees immediately locked up again and she pointed Savior of Balance right in Vexen's face. "One on one then, you and me. Then we'll see just who's the better fighter, the _precious_ Savior of Balance or a once destroyed Barnes and Noble wash-out." She couldn't read the expression on Vexen's face; it was something between confusion and anger.

"Charity!" Nessa scolded, "I said that you're not going to overdo it!" She stared at her friend angrily; she might have had the temper, but Charity had a bad habit of thinking that she could handle anything that was thrown at her.

"Save your strength for Calypso," Riku practically pleaded to the side, "that's when we'll need every little bit of it!"

"_Trust _me!" Charity shouted angrily at everyone in the group who was yelling at her to stop. "Three years ago when that keyblade appeared in my hands for the first time, when that Heartless first attacked us, and when Leander explained everything," Nessa looked down at this, "I was so scared. I thought for sure that I was too weak to go through any of that. But at the same time, I realized something so important; that's what I was put on this earth for."

At that, Nessa looked back up at her friend.

"I was put here as the Savior of Balance, not to wield it. I _am_ the Savior of Balance, and I'll do whatever's in my power to get rid of the last surviving Organization member, even if it means being destroyed myself later. That's a risk I have to take. I appreciate you all worrying about me, I really do, but it's not necessary." She turned back around.

"How heartfelt." Vexen practically spat. His temper was worse than Nessa's, Charity could already pick up from the man.

Charity raised an eyebrow, "How would you know?" In a second, the talking had ceased and Charity and Vexen were at each other, shield on keyblade. During the whole battle, Charity didn't seem much worried at all. If Calypso couldn't choose the last surviving member to be somebody stronger, she couldn't have been that smart herself. Then again, that wasn't much of a compliment to herself considering Calypso was more of her than she was.

xxxxx

Cloud was bleeding hard. Still, he refused to back down and hacked at Sephiroth with all of his strength. His attacks were near unbeatable; how in the world was he supposed to get rid of this 'man'? Leon was trying to help, but just hurting himself in the process. He didn't know Sephiroth like Cloud knew him. It was not safe for him there.

"Enjoy the fact that you're still bleeding. Embrace the fact that you have the ability to do just that." Sephiroth told, no, commanded Cloud.

"I'll embrace this when you go to hell." Cloud threatened, pulling out his large weapon from where it had been knocked into the ground just a second before.

"Light alone won't save you." Sephiroth reminded him, disregarding the last statement.

"And darkness won't make you any stronger, either." Cloud really couldn't come up with anything else. After what seemed like hours of fighting; hours of trying harder and harder, Cloud finally managed to pierce his weapon straight through Sephiroth.

Expecting him to rip the weapon right out from inside him and throw it to the ground like a child's toy, Cloud was more than surprised when Sephiroth just stood there in shock. No blood poured, no expression crossed his face except pure and utter shock.

"I called you here," Cloud reminded Sephiroth, who now seemed to be gagging in darkness, "to finally defeat you. Killing you means killing off my own darkness."

Sephiroth gasped, "and... somehow." he looked over at the young, blond warrior. It wasn't the weapon that was destroying him. It was something deeper. What was it? "You have." he finished. Falling to the ground face-forward, the weapon only stuck farther through Sephiroth, stained an unmentionable color.

"It's over..." Aerith sighed, one hand on her face when Sephiroth fell to the floor. She ran up to the weak and bloody Cloud, and wrapped her hands around him tightly. "It's all over now. It's over." she couldn't say it enough. It really was; it was over.

xxxxx

The Chilly Academic was an understatement. Her fingers were so frozen that she could hardly move them from their clutching the keyblade handle, and her senses were all failing Charity's self. Her hearing and sight were the worst of. Vexen, however, was the one who was on his knees on the ground, gasping for breath.

"Tell me you give up," Charity said, "and I'll leave you. You won't have to fade into the darkness." She truly felt bad for him; he was in terrible shape. Before she could think, Charity extended a hand out to Vexen.

Surprised, Vexen took it, but then smirked. Charity tried to pull her hand away, but no luck. "I'd rather fade back into darkness." Suddenly, darkness in the form of spider webs or shadows began to surround the academic. Before she knew it, they began rolling over Charity's wrist and hand herself.

"Charity!" Riku shouted, running up to his girlfriend and pulling her out of Vexen's grip. He seemed displeased with himself as he faded back.

"Tell me!" Charity shouted, "Where is Calypso?"

With his last bit of energy, Vexen looked back up at her and responded, "Where else but where you would least expect?" With that, he disappeared into the darkness that was surrounding him; the darkness that had been surrounding him and every other member in the Organization for the longest time. Just the sight of this made Roxas back away. It was one thing when he wasn't there when Organization members were being destroyed, but watching it, witnessing those that he once worked with disappear, he didn't want to experience.

"Hmph." Nessa folded her arms. "Riddles."

Charity put her hand to her right leg; apparently the gash that she had earlier from the crash that had finally scabbed over ripped back open. It only started searing with pain when she acknowledged that it was there at all.

"I don't think it's a riddle." Kairi admitted, stepping forward to help Charity up, who had just fallen to her own knees. "Think about it. The one place that we wanted her to restore; it would be the place that we least expect because we don't think it's restored yet. Right?"

Nessa slammed her fist into an open hand, "That's right!" she exclaimed happily.

"What...?" asked Nessa.

"It's... Azure Daybreak." Charity coughed. Blood came out. Her throat was cut slightly on the inside. How that happened, she didn't even want to ask, unless she had truly swallowed so hard when it was still cold that it ripped a layer of skin off. "It has to be. Calypso's back at Azure Daybreak. She probably thinks we're dead by now. We have to go..."

"No," Roxas shook his head, "first we have to spend a night at Hollow Bastion. You've gone a bunch of worlds in a row plus surviving a Gummi Ship crash and an Organization member trying to drag you into the darkness."

"He's right." Riku nodded. "We're going back to Hollow Bastion first."

"How?" Sora's mouth became lopsided, "How would we even get to Azure Daybreak? Our Gummi Ship's busted."

Growl. Squeak. It sounded so familiar that Charity didn't even have to open her eyes to see what was there.

"...Camel?" asked Nessa, looking up at the big, Heartless dragon. As if it was nodding, it bent its neck over to let everybody on.

"How'd it know to come?" asked Broden.

"It probably knew Charity was in trouble." Sora told him, getting on the dragon himself after helping Charity up.

"But... _how_?" Broden asked.

"Heartless have instinct, too." Kairi responded, and they all made it on Camel. Camel took off and into the atmosphere of space, and Charity finally realized what was so special about this Heartless that made it different from the rest; it made a circular barrier around them, letting them breathe.

"It's like a space dragon." Charity murmured to herself.

"Just shut up!" Nessa shouted over to Broden.

Charity chuckled a little bit. "Thanks, Camel." she cooed at the dragon, and got a little bit of a moan in response.

xxxxx

"I swear, that was a miracle." Leon shook his head, helping Aerith to tend to Cloud's wounds right outside of Merlin's house. "That was one of the strongest enemies I think I've ever even tried to battle."

Cloud sighed. "So I really let my darkness get that strong."

"Speaking of miracles," Aerith smiled, and saw the group flying towards them on the giant Camel, who had just taken off not too long ago after perking up for no apparent reason. Landing swiftly and bending his head over to let everyone off, Camel seemed to stand in place as if waiting for a cookie of some kind.

"Calypso wasn't there," Charity told her, "but we have so much to tell you."

"Heya!" Cid's voice came from inside the house when he stepped outside, and immediately, his huge smile turned into a frown. "Where's tha' Gummi Ship?"

"We drove it through at least a layer of darkness into The World that Never Was and crashed it into the surface." Charity murmured as if it was nothing.

Cid smiled again, too widely in a very scary fashion. "Care ta... repeat that?"

"CHILDREN!" came a booming voice. None other than Merlin poofed onto the scene, wearing a strange grass skirt and coconut bra.

"Not now, Merlin." Sora shook his head.

"Let's not procrastinate!" he exclaimed happily to the group, "Oh goodness! You're hurt! I can fix that! Teehee!" He pointed his, now quite oddly-shaped, wand at Charity.

"I'm okay... I'm okay!" Charity shouted at the man, limping away as fast as she could. "I'll take a potion! I just need a potion!"

"Nonsense!" Merlin shouted, laughing like a little girl once more, "Hockety Pockety Wockety Wack..."

**Author's Note: And here we go! Next chapter's the last, and then the epilogue, and the special secret chapter. XD I guess it's not really secret because you didn't have to beat anything special in a game to get to it, but it is special. See you next, last chapter!**


	13. La, La, Sayonara

CHAPTER XIII

La, La, Sayonara

(NOTE)

Here it is, the last chapter! Technically, we've still got the epilogue and then the surprise chapter. Hehe; surprise, secret, I'm just changing things up, aren't I? I hope you like this one, I spent forever thinking about what to do for it... and the idea came to me in pretty much a millisecond, absolutely nothing to do with the previous ideas I had. xDD So, read and enjoy!

(/NOTE)

_On the water's surface, only you float, reflecting the middle of a battlefield._

The air smelled cold. Wait a second; it was a beach; why was it so cold? In fact, it was Destiny Islands. Some cave in Destiny Islands... wasn't this the one that Kairi, Riku, and Sora used to go to? The Secret Place? Charity ran her hand down one drawing of Kairi and Sora sharing some star-shaped objects. It certainly was.

She was younger; sixteen, quite possibly.

_Slash hack burn._

Just managing to dodge the attack from the purple-haired woman, she slid out of the way, and charged back at her with Savior of Balance. Nessa was lying on the floor over at the other side of the cave; she was holding an odd keyblade. She looked hurt.

In fact, many people looked hurt. White cloaked people, black dressed. This was the keyblade war. Charity remembered it only too well. What it was like to be on neutral sides, how light could be just as intensifying as the darkness.

_Become the wind, the divine wind, and into the darkness, disappear._

Charity felt her hand clench to Riku's tightly. She had only known him for a little while, but something inside wouldn't let her let him go. The darkness? How could this happen? Not to Riku, never to Riku. Could it? There was a tear trailing down her face. She was quite surprised that she could still feel anything at all.

"_You_ never left. Kairi, Sora, and you... You're all that I am. _You're_ my heart."

A flash of brilliant light flooded the darkness they had been standing in. A cool wind blew against her hot, tear-stained cheeks when she could finally feel floor beneath her again.

_Bloom in the evening of our reunion, the shape of the lilies._

"There are... multiple worlds?" she asked the Christmas hair-colored boy, clinging to the side of her shirt through a familiar nervous habit.

"And in doing so, the Heartless had stopped appearing in any world, along with the Nobodies, which are a whole different story. But they're back again, and the Keyblade wielders are once again needed." Leander told her after she nodded.

Nessa shook her head, "Bullshit."

"After you saw the Heartless and keyblade, I'll let you decide for yourself."

_Only old, faded photographs, the days piling up on one another. Fire lights up with a pinwheel, calmed the tears._

_La la, goodbye._

_La la, the evening opens._

Charity awoke with a start; another flashback dream. Completely the opposite of what she needed. Rubbing her left eye, she jumped; today was the day to go to Azure Daybreak and separate Calypso. Pulling off the covers, she looked down at her legs. Still scabbed up badly, they had stopped bleeding, and even hurting.

"Charity," Riku opened the door, but only a crack. Seeing that everything was safe, he walked in, "You ready to go? How you feeling?" He wasn't very good at playing caretaker; this was definitely something different for him.

"Mm." Charity smiled, and nodded. "A lot better. But you know, we could have gone yesterday."

Riku gave that deep chuckle of his and walked farther in the room. Even at age nineteen he seemed like such a little boy to her, but at the same time, he wasn't. It was complicated. Riku sat down at her bedside, and put his hands over hers.

"Charity, can I ask you so—!"

"C'mon, Riku! Charity! We've gotta get going!" Sora shouted from the other room.

Riku shook his head, breathed a heavy sigh, and let go of her hands. "Later, I guess." Riku left her to quickly get change, and she went out with the rest of them. Nessa was sitting on the couch, wasting time by watching television, before Charity practically dragged her off the second she walked in the room.

"What?" she asked her. "You were taking forever, so I was bored." she smirked.

"Charity," Leon came, walking up to the younger girl. He looked down at her and straight in her eyes, "Now, uh... Calypso's really powerful, I think you know that. And in case you weren't to ever come back, I just wanted to let you know, you were like a daughter to me. Good luck." He scratched the back of his head. He obviously wasn't very good at this.

Charity smiled, "And you were like a surrogate father. But don't worry, I'm more than definitely coming back. Calypso's no match for me."

"Did all 'a those Potions get to yer head?" asked Cid, who was still upset at everybody for crashing the Gummi Ship and made Sora give him all of his Munny for repairs, even though it was Charity who drove it through a layer of darkness.

"Maybe one. Or two." She hugged Leon quickly, and they bade the committee good-bye. "'Bye, Axel!" Charity shouted down the hall, guessing that he was just sleeping in late as usual. Now that he was a Somebody and actually cared about sleeping, he had been doing it all the time. Charity climbed onto the new, slightly better quality Gummi Ship Cid allowed them to borrow, and sat down on one of the seats.

"I hope Axel's alright as a Somebody." Nessa admitted, "I heard that he was taking Spanish. Why that mattered whether or not he was a Somebody, I dunno."

Charity laughed as Sora started up the Gummi Ship and it lifted off.

"I'm sure he'll be okay. They could definitely use him at the Organization again." Roxas admitted to everybody. Naminé nodded in agreement. "But we could also use him here, fighting along with us."

"SORPRESA!" A flash of red shot out from underneath Charity's seat, causing her to scream in the must un-Charity pitch she had ever screamed in. Axel smiled widely at the group; Charity made it very clear in her expression that once was enough.

"What turn do you take to get to Azure Daybreak?" Sora called back, who obviously didn't hear or see the little Axel incident just moments ago.

"How are we supposed to know?" asked Nessa, "Our world's been gone for the past three years, after all. We did go back that one time, though..."

"I think you take a right until you find it by Twilight Town." Charity shrugged, "But don't take my word for it."

"Actually," Sora interrupted, looking down at the representation of the suburban, lush and green representation of Azure Daybreak, "here it is."

xxxxx

Nessa and Charity alike almost fell to their knees the second they stepped back in their world. They felt like sophomores again, back by the tree by the Stevenson High School Parking Lot that they first ever saw the Heartless or keyblades in, and where they first met Leander.

"I remember this place." Riku smiled. He had been sent to this area of Azure Daybreak to retrieve Leander, Nessa, and Charity, even though Nessa wasn't even supposed to be involved in all of this. Then again, if she hadn't, she would have had no idea that she was a Nobody, she wouldn't have found Sada and reunited with her to become a Somebody, and she would have eventually faded into the darkness.

"I wonder." Charity smiled. She turned towards the odd-looking tree, and tapped it with her keyblade. Sure enough, it opened up like a door. Without even realizing it, Charity felt a tear trickle down her face. "Imagine," she started, "people who have no idea that keyblades, Nobodies, or Heartless exist. How do they live? How did they explain it to themselves when they were scattered from their family and friends?"

Sora put a hand on Charity's shoulder. "I can guarantee you, it's hard. Being separated from your friends and family. All you're looking for is a way to find them again. But look towards the light, and you'll find them."

Charity smiled at this. "What if you looked towards the neutral? The gray side?"

Sora shook his head, "Sometimes you just need pure light, like some need pure darkness. They're all there for a reason. Darkness, lightness, balance, there's really no perfect inbetween. It's all there for a reason, so why find the perfect mix?"

Charity nodded, "You're right." Savior of Balance flashed into her hand, "This keyblade brought me pain, happiness, anger, and a lot more. You can't define these things; there's no scientific explanation. It's just... there."

"And on that note," Nessa smiled, "let's go prove that to Calypso."

Charity nodded her head vigorously. "Sora? You've got Ultima Weapon?" she asked him, turning around so they could meet each other face-to-face.

Sora flashed them the thumbs-up and let Ultima Weapon appear in his right hand. "Where do you think she is?"

At this point, Naminé came in. "Calypso has many of Charity's memories. Where was the first time that she ever got involved in any of this? I think we can find her there." Naminé looked over at Nessa and Charity; the only two, living, that knew where they first saw a Heartless.

"Where did we... that's right." Nessa seemed pleased with herself for remembering, "The school's parking lot."

xxxxx

"What a perfect life you lived here." Calypso commented, facing the opposite direction of Charity and the others. There were no cars in the parking lot, nor any working street lights. It was night-time over at Azure Daybreak, but that much was obvious. Calypso's silvery-brown eyes scanned the school. "I've been walking through some of your memories for the past two days. I keep thinking... isn't this the life I'm supposed to live?"

"You _were_ living it," Charity interjected, "when both you and Exie were living inside of me. You were given these memories of living with the Organization and a separate life by Naminé, don't you understand?"

"I understand it perfectly!" she hissed, spinning around to meet Charity. She only looked amused when she noticed that Charity's eyes had become the same silvery-brown as hers were when they first tried to shake each other's hand. "But fake memories or not, they're what I remember, and they've been etched into my heart." She put a hand on her chest where her heart would be.

"But that heart was only created unconsciously by you. I have the heart that we both shared, from birth if not longer. It's in _me_. We are _one person_. It's these fake memories that make you this way, but we think for each other." Calypso was not moving; she stood, raged. Charity hated trying to explain this, because half of the time, she had no idea what she was talking about herself. The truth was, it was just usually right.

"Fake or not," Calypso stammered, "I'm not letting this end without a fight." Moonlight Radiance shown in her hand beautifully with her own created keychain dangling from the ends.

"Why does it always end in a fight?" Charity shouted at her.

"I have to destroy you to live a life of my own." Calypso responded back.

"You just don't _get it_!" Charity shouted, this time angry enough for Nessa, Vexen, and herself combined, "We can solve this without fighting. If you would just become unseparated and rejoin me, there would be no world reaction. We would both live a life as one; we would be each other. You gave a heart back to Azure Daybreak so you could live a normal life here. Why don't we start here?" She only stared at Calypso.

"Over my dead body would I _ever_ rejoin with you!" She charged at Charity with Moonlight Radiance, Charity just barely dodging the stab. "_Over my dead body!_"

"That can very well be arranged." Broden smirked and pulled out his gunblade.

"_This_ is what I'm talking about." Nessa joined in on the fight, as did Riku, Kairi, Sora, Axel, Roxas, and even Naminé after a while.

Calypso was fierce. She somehow managed to multiply her keyblade, and now held one in each hand. Easily avoiding Sora, she ducked down under Nessa's swipe with her blade, and stabbed Charity in her leg, on the shin, exactly where it hurt her.

"This makes no sense." Charity muttered, "She knows every place that hurts the most." She only attacked harder, faster with Savior of Balance, getting a few hits in every now and then. It was obvious that Calypso was trying her hardest to avoid the Ultima Weapon; she had apparently read the Ansem reports.

"Maybe she's been watching you." Broden suggested, with a hint of something subtle in his language as he managed to get a hit in on Calypso.

"You don't get it." Calypso hissed evilly, "I am more of you than you are. I know your weaknesses, and _this_ just happens to be one." She backed up by jumping backwards to the back of everything, and grabbed Nessa by the hair. Nessa struggled underneath Calypso, but she only held her feet down with her own foot and began twisting her neck to one side.

"Let go of her!" Charity screamed in an even more strangled one than when Axel had appeared in the Gummi Ship. In a desperate attempt to get Nessa back, she jabbed at Calypso. Before she could tell what was going on, Calypso put Nessa in front of her before she was stabbed.

Her whole world stopped at that moment. Just when she thought that she had stabbed Nessa, she had moved her body out of the way so it just barely went through Calypso and not herself.

"What the...!"

"I would never let you live with the satisfaction of knowing that Charity killed her best friend." Nessa smirked, and did a 180 to end up on the other side, and stabbed her in the stomach with her sword, causing Calypso to cry out in pain.

"That's ENOUGH!" a voice came from within Calypso. The girl began to gag, as a blonde head began to push her spirit-like silhouette out of the body of Calypso.

"What are you... doing?!" asked Calypso. She looked like a Heartless again after Exie stepped out of her, and obviously still remembered everything as she charged back at the group, as Exie couldn't do anything without her weapon.

"She destroyed Destroyer of Balance!" Exie complained over to Charity. She reached in the pocket of her Organization coat, however; she managed to keep the keychain.

"She still has her memories!" Riku shouted to the rest of them.

"What are we going... Agh! To... do...?" asked Charity, who had just been sliced by a keyblade in the side. She managed, however, to avoid the stab she had most cleverly placed straight after the slice, and Charity stabbed her in the shoulder. No blood, no breathing, nothing; they were fighting a Heartless.

"Leave it to me!" Naminé cried out to them. She held out her hand, and pointed it out towards Calypso. "If Axel could use his last bit of darkness, then I can use mine." Her hand seemed to summon something invisible out of Calypso; before Sora could strike with the Ultima Weapon, that he seemed to have never needed in the first place, Calypso fell to her knees. As if pulling in a rope, with one hand, Naminé continued to pull something important out of Calypso.

"I don't... what's...?" The Heartless looked up at Charity, "Char... it... y." She fell to the ground, and it was then that Charity realized; Naminé was taking back all of the memories she had created for Calypso.

"Is it... over?" asked Nessa.

"Not quite." Charity shook her head, smiling. A tear rolled down her face, before she kneeled on the floor and looked at her Heartless. With eyes full of wonder, Calypso looked back up at her Somebody, as if she was so familiar, yet so distant.

"Will you come back with me?" she extended a hand out to Calypso.

Organization XIII, memories, Vexen, Anton, creating hearts, restoring Azure Daybreak, fighting until near death just for the claim over a life. And somehow, the Heartless managed a smile, and held Charity's hand. In a flash of light purple and darkness, Calypso disappeared back into Charity.

Taking a deep breath, Charity fell backwards.

"Charity!" Nessa shouted.

"Wait," Exie interjected, "she needs me. That's too much darkness in one body at so soon of a time." She kneeled down on the floor next to Charity on the ground, just like Charity had done to Calypso just a minute before.

Charity managed a smile. "Take the pain away, Exie."

Exie laughed behind her mats of blond hair tangling in front of her face. "Got it." She put her hand to Charity's soft cheek, and disappeared in a flash of starry white light back into Charity's body. Groaning, Charity attempted to stand up.

With the help of Nessa and Riku, she managed just that.

"It's over..." Kairi cried, "It's over!" She ran up to the three, only to tackle them back to the ground in a hug. Sora, Naminé and Roxas entered soon after, and even Axel decided to join. Broden, however, had gone unconscious only a little bit early and was still unconscious on the ground. After more than enough crying and hugging, they all got up.

"Sora?" asked Kairi, bending down to look at Sora's face as he got up, "Are you... crying?" she asked him. She could tell; his painted on flower was smudging.

"Crying?" he asked, wiping something away on his face. "Nah." He gave them a huge, toothy smile, the kind that caused both Kairi and Riku to laugh together.

Riku's eyes widened, and he ran over to Charity.

"Charity," he started.

"Yeah?" she asked, wiping a tear out from under her eye as well, but somehow, still smiling.

"I've been trying to ask you this all day, but it's never been the right time, or we've been interrupted, or..." Riku stopped himself while he was ahead, and reached into his pocket. Pulling out a small box, he opened it, and got on one knee.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What was he doing? A box and one knee; that meant something big. Was he really? Charity put her hand over her mouth; the tears it had soaked up smelled odd against her nose. She lost all balance in one leg for a second or two.

In the box was a glittering, diamond ring, "Charity, will you marry me?"

"...R-Riku..." Charity hiccuped in what seemed to be starting something like a crying fest. Riku got off of his one knee, and Charity almost tackled him over in a warm embrace. He wrapped his arms around her, and Charity began crying on his shoulder. So much in one day; way too much. "Y-yes, I'll marry you."

Nessa's mouth was open in pure shock. "_At eighteen_?" she asked lightly. Hopefully, they would pick a marriage date a couple of years from then.

Sora, however, was not in any shock at all. He had been there, helping him decide on a ring. Kairi, however, was almost as emotional as Charity, and looked over at Sora, who was just smiling at the sight, and hit him on the back of the head.

"What?!" asked Sora.

"Aww." Broden mumbled drunkly as he managed to stand up from being knocked out. He put his index finger up in the air, "I'in't that sweeeeet?" He fell straight back down to the ground.

"Let's... go back to Hollow Bastion." Charity pushed slightly away from Riku to look him in the face. His eyes were red and puffy, and his face seemed a little metallic. Could Riku, emotionless, hard, Riku, have been crying?

"Let's." he agreed with his fiancé, leaving the parking lot by Gummi Ship, certainly for the last time.

**Author's Note: Aaaaand there it is. Epilogue coming up soon, and then the surprise chapter. I'm almost sad it's all over... :tears up a little bit: But! At the same time, it's good. :D See you in the epilogue!**


	14. Epilogue: Curse My Enemies, Forever

CHAPTER XIV

Epilogue

Curse My Enemies Forever

(NOTE)

Here we are, the epilogue. Some things may surprise you, others may not. I guess we'll see. The setting here takes place two years after the fight with Calypso. Enjoy!

(/NOTE)

"Nessa, I think you're more nervous than I am." the bride chuckled to the Maid of Honor as she helped her zip her dress in the back.

"Of course I am," the girl, now a woman, replied to her best friend, "first off, you need to walk down the aisle! Your dad's waiting for you."

Charity smiled and laughed sheepishly as she rushed out of the room and ended up downstairs. A wedding outside; exactly what she wanted. Nessa somehow managed to rush down and cut through the aisle to stand with Naminé, Kairi, and Amber, all three of them standing expectantly, waiting for Charity, as did Riku on the other side of the aisle. As she walked down the aisle with her father, she thought of everything that happened since the day Riku proposed to her.

She stopped, and the man started reciting the vows.

Things had only improved since they had separated Calypso. The committee managed to restore both Hollow Bastion and the Radiant Garden back to its old self since the Heartless count had dropped so much. Due to this, they installed a security system in every known world that took care of the small amount of Heartless that were still there.

As for the Radiant Garden, they found a new ruler to take the place of Ansem The Wise, although, he was now serving as more of a president than anything. But what would they expect out of Yatsuyo?

As for Pence, Hayner, Olette, and Odol, they all managed to bring their families to come live in Azure Daybreak, although they can't resist a visit every now and then to Twilight Town. After all, that was where they grew up.

Riku, Kairi, and Sora had all been living in Azure Daybreak for the past two years because even after Calypso's separation, the darkness surrounding Destiny Islands hadn't gone away. Riku had told Charity that it was only a matter of time, but that was debatable.

Kairi and Sora also became engaged, and Nessa and Hayner soon after. Nessa and Hayner's marriage date is set, but Kairi and Sora are still debating between theirs, of course. Naminé and Roxas plan on having a joint marriage with Kairi and Sora, mainly just for reaction's sake.

"Do you, Riku, take Charity to be your loftily wedded wife, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"

'_Death? I was thinking something more along the lines of darkness._'

"I do."

"And do you, Charity, take Riku to be your loftily wedded husband, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"

'_When you say 'sickness', does that include losing your Heartless to an Organization of Nobodies trying to gain their own hearts?_'

"I do."

"You may kiss the bride."

Their lips met maybe a moment too soon. Sickness and in health? Until death? Yeah, they could do that.

Heartless and Nobodies? Until darkness?

Yeah, they could do that, too.

xxxxx

It only took one more year for Nessa and Hayner to get married, but two years after that to be followed by Roxas and Naminé, and Sora and Kairi.

Charity and Riku had two children together; the first was a boy, and then three years later, a baby girl. The boy seemed to resemble Charity more, and the girl had an obvious amount more of Riku in her blood.

Hayner and Nessa also had two children, both boys. These two, they decided to name Quince and Anton, but they just go by 'Q and Anty' now.

Naminé and Roxas had two boys and one girl, and one boy and the girl were fraternal twins. Sora and Kairi decided to adopt a kid after dealing with the constant babysitting of the twins. They decided maybe an adopted one would be 'pre-trained'.

In the Radiant Garden, there was finally a peaceful era of rule over both the Radiant Garden and Hollow Bastion. They visited whenever they got the chance, and that was quite often. The only precaution they ever had was against Merlin, whom, unfortunately, never ceased in his crossdressing crazy-dancing ways.

Through all this, they had all decided on one thing.

They vowed never to have to wield a keyblade again.

**Author's Note: Aww, happy ending. But wait, there's still the secret chapter. Shush. Aheh. So, there was the epilogue. Secret chapter will be up shortly:3**


	15. Secret 'Chapter': I Lied

CHAPTER XV

I Lied

(NOTE)

So, the title of this chapter doesn't come from anything... I seriously... lied. :3 Just wait and you'll see exactly what I mean, hopefully, if you're smart, which I know you are.

(/NOTE)

Amali shut her locker and messed up the combination; there was a history at her junior high of the kids stealing. Not like that mattered, anyway, considering eighth grade graduation was just around the corner. Just around the corner was the next day. What a scary thought.

Her short, dark, silver hair flowed behind her while she walked, part of it in a mini-braid to the side. The way she dressed reminded her so much of her mother that it was scary, but in a way, she had nothing against it. Without noticing as she walked down the hallway, her hands fingered the wind-shaped keychain she wore around her neck. She had been given this when she was just a baby and never threw it away. There was an instance where she almost lost it, though, but she could hardly remember because she was so young.

She was soon interrupted when her honey-blond best friend, Jaiden tapped her on the shoulder. Without even asking, Amali jumped on Jaiden's back and pretty much demanded that he carried her.

These two had been best friends since they were babies simply because their parents had been best friends. Jaiden's parents had one other boy, but they hardly heard from him. Jaiden didn't even talk to him very often.

"Just as hyper as ever." Jaiden chuckled lowly. For only a thirteen year-old, his voice had already gotten so low.

"It's graduation tomorrow! Why not?" she asked, cocking her head sideways. So amazingly hyper and optimistic, Amali was.

The happiness was broken only a second later, when they heard talk of a strange, black creature appearing in the cafeteria for a second, and then disappearing soon after. Apparently there was a boy that looked sort of like Amali, but with brown hair there, as well.

They couldn't even begin to comprehend what was going on, but Amali clutched her necklace, and decided to pretend that they were seeing things.

They were... _all_ just seeing things, right?

**Author's Note: Okay, not much of a secret chapter, but do you have any idea what's going on yet? I bet you do. :D Stay tuned for the credits!**


	16. Credits

CHAPTER XVI

Credits

First off, for all three of these stories, I want to thank everybody who reads and reviews my fanfiction, or just reads, but mostly Igor Lollipop and Azul Twilight, both of which who have been there since the first fanfiction and always leave me with reviews to read. Azul's never fail to make me want to fall out of my chair laughing, and Igor's are always giving me new, indirect ideas for the fanfiction. Thank you, both of you!

Songs used to title each chapter:

1. Wish You Were Here- Incubus

2. Darkness- Aiden

3. Touchdown Turnaround- Hellogoodbye

4. Blue Burns Orange- Hawthorne Heights

5. Baby It's Fact- Hellogoodbye

6. Inner Universe- Ghost in the Shell Anime [Translated

7. Tear You Apart- She Wants Revenge

8. A Little's Enough- Angels and Airwaves

9. Greener with Shame- The Used

10. Pens and Needles- Hawthorne Heights

11. Do It for Me Now- Angels and Airwaves

12. The Leaving Song- AFI

13. Hotarubi- Dir en Grey

14. No It Isn't- Plus 44

15. None.

Now, I thought I'd add something a little interesting, considering this is the last in the trilogy (Or is it? Have you decided?)

With every name I decide on, there's a meaning behind them. I'll start with the most basic.

Charity. Obviously I just picked that name because it was sweet and I thought it symbolized the light side right, but that was before I decided to make her the savior of balance. Oops.

More serious ones:

Nessa and Leander: There's one chapter in A Step Into the Twilight called 'And the Lion Fell in Love with the Lamb', when they both fall in love with each other. The name 'Nessa' means Lamb and 'Leander' means Lion.

Anton: The meaning of Anton is completely unknown, just like our thoughts of him on his first few chapters, before he turned to go to Kiur's side.

Odol: His name means bloody. Pretty much, I wanted him to be a very gory character when I first brought him in, but I fell in love with the character so bad that I just couldn't do that to him. Heh.

Kiur: Simple; Riku's name re-arranged. Kind of like Xehanort, which is 'no heart' with an X.

Exie: Defender of Men; look whose side she ended up joining?

Nyx: Night-time. Just like her powers, ne?

Sada: Sada means pure. This might not mean a lot, but the girl that I based her off of, Kari, her name means pure as well. Just a bit of fun information.

Estelle: Star; Pretty much light comes from stars.

Parker? I just always liked that name.

Broden means brother, and we learn that Broden is Parker's brother earlier on.

Xylia: It means 'from the forest', hence why I gave Nessa's sword forest-like designs.

Yasuyo: It means Peaceful Era; exactly what he brought to the Radiant Garden in the epilogue.

There are more, but I'll leave you to those. ;3


End file.
